Come On In My Kitchen
by Isabel5
Summary: Chloe/Neal - Chloe hasn't seen Neal since he left almost five years ago, last she heard he was in jail so a fancy party in New York City was the very last place that she expected to see him but he may be the only person that she can trust to help her and
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Come On In My Kitchen  
**Fandom**: Smallville/White Collar Crossover  
**Pairing**: Chloe/Neal  
**Rating**: M  
**Spoilers**: White Collar - Around the middle of the first season. Smallville - Pretty much current only Chloe/Oliver never happened.  
**Word Count: **5,427  
**Disclaimer:** Don't own. Really want.  
**Author's Note: **The title is a song by Robert Johnson.

Neal was made for fundraisers. He grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter and smiled as yet another of June's friends promised at least a six digit sum for June's charity. No one could get people to part with their hard earned money, and happily at that, better than Neal. He's sure that's what June had in mind when she asked him to attend tonight. She looked across the room at him now and raised her glass in salute and he mirrored her then turned toward the door to search for his next victim.

The sound of twinkling laughter, light and free and achingly familiar caught his attention and he spun frantically searching out its owner. He moved from room to room searching. The laughter was unmistakably hers, he would know it anywhere, it was seared into his memory. It was also a sound he never thought he'd hear again. He stopped in the foyer and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. There was no way that it could be her, no way that she would be here of all places and he had almost had himself convinced that he'd imagined the laughter when he smelled it. The perfume was citrusy with just a hint of vanilla and logically he knew that there were more than a few woman here who were wearing Jo Malone Blue Agave but the smell combined with the laugh and he had to look. He turned his head, following his nose into the main room and he saw her.

All of his breath left his body in one undignified huff at the sight in front of him. She was practically glowing, her left arm firmly in the crook of the man standing by her side. He looked familiar in that way that all rich people look familiar, handsome, self assured, Neal had probably seen his face in the paper on the cover of a magazine before but he couldn't place him at the moment, all his attention was focused on the girl. "Chloe." He whispered allowing himself a small smile.

Her hair was still short and blonde, precise curls framed her face but in an almost casual way, meant to look unfussy, natural. Her deep green silk dress hugged her curves in places and draped enticingly in others.

She'd been wearing silk the last time he saw her. He closed to his eyes as the memory hit him suddenly, the feel of the fabric sliding between his fingers as he bunched it up around her hips, a hint of strawberries and champagne on her lips and tongue, the way her fingers dug into his shoulder blades as she gasped his name.

"Neal!" Someone called and he shook his head, bringing himself back to the party and found himself looking into the smiling face of Elizabeth Burke. "Where did you go just then?"

"Nowhere." He smiled uneasily at her. He was still holding the glass of champagne he'd grabbed earlier and grateful for something to do he brought it to his lips only to pause when he saw fresh starwberries floating in the drink. He set it down on the table beside him untouched and turned to Elizabeth. "When did you get here?" Neal asked, one eye on Elizabeth, the other eye firmly watching Chloe and her date as she made her way through the crowd to June.

"About five minutes ago." Elizabeth laughed. "Am I keeping you from something?" She asked him then turned and followed his gaze. "Or maybe someone?" She said with a knowing smile.

"What? No of course not." Neal gave her his full attention. "You look stunning by the way."

"Thanks." She smiled sincerely this time. "You don't look so bad yourself."

"Where's Peter?" Neal frowned just as the man in question walked up.

"Hey. Have you seen the guy with the champagne?" Peter asked looking around.

"Here have mine." Neal offered Peter the glass he'd taken earlier. Peter looked at it skeptically. "I didn't drink out of it."

"What's wrong with it?" Peter asked.

"Nothing." Neal sighed. "I just wasn't in the mood."

"Neal Caffery not in the mood for Champagne?" Peter smirked taking a sip. "Has hell frozen over?"

"Very funny." Neal said.

"Honey, behave." Elizabeth smacked his arm lightly.

"Peter." Neal frowned at him. "Is that the same suit you wore to work?"

"I didn't have time to change." Peter looked down confused as to what was wrong with his suit.

"You left work before me." Neal argued.

"You're lucky I even got him here." Elizabeth smiled. "It's playoff season."

"It's like the second game in the first round." Neal said.

"Each game is important." Peter argued.

Chloe laughed again and the sound carried all the way through the room. It hit Neal hard, like a shot to the heart. "Would you two excuse me?" Neal asked unable to take it anymore, pushing past Elizabeth and Peter toward June.

"What's going on with him?" Peter asked but Neal didn't stick around to hear Elizabeth's answer.

As he got closer he took in the changes in her, the ones he could see were good. She'd grown, her features moving from cute to pretty, boarding on beautiful. She stood taller, held herself more confidently. He was glad to see that time had been kind to her. When she'd disappeared from his life five years before he'd started to lose hope that he would ever see her again.

Ever since he got out, for the past few months, he'd imagined the worse, pictured her either broken and bleeding or locked up in a cell somewhere, hidden away, never to see the light of day again. Yet here she was, in New York City at a party that cost $500 a plate and that was just to get in the door. All attendees were expected, if not necessarily required, to donate a very hefty sum to the charity of June's choice. In the depths of his imagination Chloe's fate had been all doom and gloom. In reality it was apparently much more champagne and caviar. He couldn't help the small tinge of anger he felt at that.

"Neal." June said as he walked up, her smile widening. "I was just going to come looking for you. I have someone I want you to meet."

Chloe turned to him slowly, the smile on her face, falling the moment her eyes locked on his. He saw her swallow thickly, her face going pale. "Neal." She said, unable to stop herself and he stopped in his tracks at the tone of her voice. It was nowhere near the breathy, desperate tone she'd had the last time he'd heard her whisper his name. It was surprised, unsure, almost scared.

"Chloe." Neal said, the anger gone in an instant, the relief evident in his voice at finally seeing her again.

"I…what are you doing here?" She looked nervous now, the grip she had on her dates arm getting tighter, almost white knuckled. He looked down at her concerned.

"I-I live here." Neal said. "What are you doing here?"

"I…" Words seemed to fail her which never happened.

"I invited her." June said confused, looking between Chloe and Neal. "You two know each other?"

"Yes." Neal said just as Chloe answered. "No," Neal tilted his head at her.

"We knew each other." She corrected herself. "Once upon a time." June smiled and Chloe turned back to Neal. "Last I heard you were in jail." Chloe said to him.

The man at her side showed a reaction to this comment, finally giving Neal a proper once over. Neal wanted to say, _Last I heard you were locked away in a secret prison somewhere_ but he just smiled. "I got out." Neal told her, the ghost of a smile on his face. "Time off for good behavior."

Chloe snorted at that, unable to stop herself and Neal laughed with her. As soon as her smile appeared it disappeared and then the man next to her coughed. "Sorry, Neal Caffery, this is Oliver Queen." Oliver held out his hand and Neal hesitated a second before shaking it, he might not have recognized his face right away but he certainly recognized the name.

Chloe's phone beeped and she pulled it out of her pocket frowning at the screen. "Excuse me. You guys should talk amongst yourselves, you've got a lot in common. Oliver collects art and Neal," she stared at him for a while before turning back to Oliver. "Well, Neal steals it." She walked away without a second glance and Oliver looked at Neal confused.

"You steal art?" Oliver asked for lack of anything better to say.

"Allegedly." Neal offered, staring at Chloe over his shoulder. "I was never actually convicted of art theft."

"What were you actually convicted of?" Oliver asked.

"Bond forgery." Neal smirked.

Oliver really had no idea what to say to that but he was saved the trouble when Chloe called out to him from her spot by the balcony doors. "Oliver."

Her muscles were pulled so tight Oliver was sure if he poked her she's snap right in half but he had a strange feeling that was more about this Neal guy then about whatever message she'd gotten on her phone. He looked at Chloe trying her hardest not to look at Neal who was steadfastly staring at Chloe like he couldn't believe she was there in front of him. Oliver nodded at Chloe then turned back to June. "It was really great to see you again, we'll catch up later. I don't want to hog you at your own party."

"Oh, of course." June said still confused by what just happened.

"Neal." Oliver nodded at the man and then walked over to Chloe who shoved the phone at him with strange look on her face. She talked rapidly as he read the screen on her phone and then she nodded somewhere over Neal's shoulder. Oliver turned and followed her gaze, his eyes widening in surprise at whatever she had shown him and then turned back to her.

Chloe moved her gaze back toward Oliver but stopped when she saw that Neal was still staring at her, their gazes locked and she glared at him before turning away quickly.

"Am I sensing a history there?" June asked as Neal watched Chloe and Oliver walk out onto the balcony. At least that was more than he got form her the last time.

"A long history." Neal said turning to June. "One that's best not to get into in the absence of hard liquor." He said before June could ask anything else.

"I see." June nodded. "A romantic one then." She patted his arm and walked away.

Neal looked around the party, trying to keep his mind off of the fact that the woman that he thought he'd never see again was fifteen feet away from him and seemed, for some strange reason, to be mad at him. He could go back to the party. He could likely milk another million or so out of the guests which June would definitely appreciate.

But he didn't. He found himself drawn to the balcony doors that were thankfully still open.

"No Oliver, this is crazy." Chloe said. "We have a strict timeline—"

"Screw the timeline." Oliver shot back at her. "This opportunity has been dropped in our laps and we'd be stupid to pass it up."

"No it would be stupid to go off script at this point, stupid and dangerous." Chloe glared at him. "We're one guy down until AC gets here and you want to run off and go in alone."

"I'm not alone." Oliver said. "Victor's got my back and AC's leaving Star City now, he'll probably be here before I can even get across town. Nothing's going to happen." Neal frowned at this wondering exactly how Oliver was expecting someone to get from Star City to New York in a few minutes. He chanced a look out on the balcony and saw Chloe gripping Oliver's arm as he tried to back away.

"Oliver—" Chloe protested.

"I'll be back before diner's served." Oliver grabbed her cheeks and placed a soft kiss on the top of her head.

Neal watched Chloe watch Oliver walk away. Her hands dropped to her side uselessly as she worried her bottom lip into her mouth, biting on it so hard she actually drew a little bit of blood. She looked for a minute like she was going to run after him but just as her weight shifted to the balls of her feet she reconsidered, falling back with an annoyed huff and turning lean against the railing.

Neal took a deep breath and walked outside. He could hear her mumbling to herself as she ran her fingers through her hair, messing up her perfect curls. "Stupid…can't believe…"

"So what's your game?" Neal asked her, the slightly bitter tone in his voice hard to mask as he leaned up against the railing beside her.

"My game?" Chloe turned to him confused, she sounded slightly distracted and that annoyed Neal even more.

"You and Oliver Queen?" Neal raised his eyebrows. "What's your game? What's the con here?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Chloe pushed herself off the railing and turned away from him.

"Oh come on I heard you." Neal said.

"You—" Chloe shook her head and walked back inside the party, grabbing a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. "There's no con." She said bringing the champagne flute to her lips. She stopped when she caught sight of the strawberries and set the glass down.

"No con?" Neal said in disbelief. "You show up to a party on the arm of Oliver Queen and I'm supposed to believe there's no con?"

"Yes, because out of the two of us, which one is more likely to be running a con?" Chloe asked him. "Speaking of cons what are you doing with June? She's a really nice lady and I swear to God if I find out you conned her out a single dime I will make sure that your ass is back in jail so fast your head will spin."

"No." Neal shook his head at her as she tried to walk away. "You don't get to do that. You were running a con on me the first time we met, remember? So you don't get to be all high and mighty on me now."

"That was different and you know it." Chloe spun around on him angrily.

"Right because you were conning me for the good of humanity." Neal laughed bitterly.

"And you were stealing 15th century manuscripts for the good of what? A villa in France." Chloe said.

"Are you sleeping with him?" Neal asked.

"Am I—" Chloe stared at him. "Are you kidding me with this? I haven't seen you in almost five years and…I'm not doing this with you, not here." She turned to walk away again but Neal just kept following after her.

"So the whole time, it was a long con right." Neal asked her.

"What?" Chloe asked confused.

"You were working me, for three years and I never caught on." Neal said and Chloe turned around startled. "But what was the end game on that?"

"I wasn't…you actually believe I was running a con on you?" Chloe stopped and looked at him confused, a hurt expression on her face.

"What was I supposed to believe Chloe?" Neal snorted. "You disappeared on me, I looked everywhere for you and you were nowhere to be found, completely off grid." Chloe's expression softened a bit. "There was even a rumor that you got pinched by the DDS but that was obviously all it was—"

"A rumor?" Chloe snorted cutting him off, and now it was her who couldn't keep the bitterness from her voice. "I'm not talking about this with you, here, now." She said walking away again. "And you made it impossible for me to stay on the grid you know that." Chloe called over her shoulder.

Neal stared after her in confusion. He had no idea what that was supposed to mean and there was no way he was letting her walk out of his life again without an explanation. He saw her freeze in place at the sight of something across the room. He followed her gaze and saw a tall guy in a white shirt slipping out of the kitchens. He paused as a waiter passed by him with a tray and he deftly grabbed the tray and headed across the room toward Chloe.

Neal watched, eyes narrowed as he stopped in front of her, leaning over and offering the tray as he whispered something to her furiously. She nodded, her face turning pale as she absently grabbed a canapé. He offered her one last pointed look before walking off back the way he came, dropping his tray off with the same confused waiter that he took it from in the first place before disappearing through the door. Chloe waited about thirty seconds before dropping the canapé on the nearest table and following the guy through the kitchen.

Neal shook his head in disbelief, she was certainly acting like someone who was running a con and he was going to find out what it was. "Neal." Peter called out to him as he headed to the kitchen. "Diner's about to be served."

Neal stopped and cursed as Chloe slipped out of his line of sight. He turned back to Peter and put a smile on his face. "Just checking on some things for June."

"Alright but if you don't hurry back I'm going to eat yours." Peter warned him and Elizabeth rolled her eyes in slight embarrassment.

"Feel free." Neal said, slipping through the kitchen doors, and catching a snatch of green silk slip through the door that led to the back alley. Neal smiled at the caterers as she made his way around them and outside.

"Oh God." He heard Chloe's voice and walked in that direction.

"It looks worse than it is." Oliver said, his voice strained and laced with pain.

"_Nothing's going to happen_." Chloe grunted. "Do you remember telling me that?"

"I also remember telling you I'd be back before dinner was served." Oliver said. "And Vic said they haven't even called everyone into the dining room yet."

"You got shot." Chloe snapped and that's when Neal turned the corner.

He saw Chloe kneeling in dirty alley in her very expensive silk dress, practically covered in blood. He looked closer and saw Oliver Queen in front of her, leaning up against the wall of the June's building with a bullet wound in his side. "It's just a flesh wound Sidekick." He said, his voice shaky as he attempted to smile.

"It's a through and through." Chloe gritted her teeth and looked up at the two guys who were pacing back and forth. "And where were you when this happened?" She snapped.

"I just got here." The taller guy said and Neal frowned when he noticed that the man's hair was wet. As far as he knew it hadn't rained tonight so that didn't make any sense.

"And you?" Chloe turned to the other guy, the one who'd come into June's to get her.

"I was right where I was supposed to be." Victor argued. "I can't stop bullets Chloe I'm not Boy Scout."

"It's not his fault." Oliver said.

"No it's not." Chloe sighed and pressed what looked like Oliver's tuxedo jacket against the wound. "It's your fault."

Oliver grunted in pain and Neal saw Chloe crack a small smile. "Do I need to call an ambulance?" Neal asked, alerting them to his presence.

"No!" They all said at once, and then they froze and turned toward him.

"Neal!" Chloe pushed herself to her feet and looked around frantically. "What are you doing out here?"

"I followed you." Neal said. "That looks really bad." He nodded over her shoulder at Oliver who was starting to look a bit pale.

"You followed me?" Chloe shook her head. "I can't believe you followed me. That is so far out of line…"

"He's losing a lot of blood. Are you sure you don't want me to call an ambulance."

"No." Chloe shook her head. "I'm sorry I just can't…we can't call an ambulance ok."

"Well you can't leave him out in the alley." Neal pointed out.

"I know that." Chloe snapped at him. He noticed her hands were shaking. "I'm thinking."

"I can call a guy." Neal offered. "He's very discreet." Chloe looked up at him with relief. "We'll bring him up to my room." Neal walked over and helped the other two guys lift Oliver up off the ground. "Back stairs." Neal nodded and Chloe hurried ahead of them to catch the door.

Chloe introduced the two guys as Victor and AC and Neal made sure they had a good grasp on him before he pulled out his cell phone and made a call.

Five minutes later they'd made their way up to Neal's room and settled Oliver into one of the chairs at the table. Five minutes after that there were three quick knocks at the door, followed by two slow ones and then four fast ones. Chloe had a feeling that the knocks could have gone on longer if Neal hadn't yanked the door open and pulled Mozzy into the room.

"You said someone was shot. Is that a code for something because I don't ever remember making that a code but I brought my kit just in case it wasn't a code—" Neal grabbed Mozzy by the shoulders and spun him around to face Oliver. "So it's not a code?" Mozzy asked and turned back to Neal. "Neal, why is Oliver Queen bleeding from a gunshot wound at your kitchen table?"

"Well we couldn't leave him out in the alley." Neal pointed out.

"Right, of course not." Mozzy shook his head and that's when he noticed the other people in the room. "Chloe." He smiled, noticing the blood on her dress. He looked from Chloe to Oliver then back again and shook his head. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Hey Moz." Chloe smiled softly at him. "Neal can I talk to you for a second?" She grabbed his arm and pulled him away. "Moz?" Chloe glared at him. "Moz is your guy?"

"He's patched me up before." Neal protested.

"You've never been shot before." Chloe reminded him.

"You said no ambulance and this is at least better than lying in an alley." Neal said.

"Marginally," Chloe argued annoyed.

"He's good at what he does." Neal tried to pacify her.

"He called me last week to program his DVR." Chloe snapped.

"In his defense, those things are tricky—" Neal stopped then turned to Moz, an unreadable expression on his face. "You talked to Chloe last week? You knew where she was? All this time."

"So, you got shot." Mozzy said ignoring Neal and giving Oliver all his attention. "I didn't realize that June's party had gotten so…gangster."

"Well you know, representing the West Coast is dangerous in New York." Oliver offered him a smile as Moz peeled Oliver's shirt away from the wound.

"I hear that." Moz nodded sagely at him studying the wound. "I'm assuming that since everyone was sitting down in the dining room eating peacefully when I arrived and the Suit didn't have this place on lockdown, this didn't happen here."

"No." Chloe answered him and he turned to her.

"Would you mind if I asked wh—"

"Yes." Chloe said and Moz held his hands up in surrender.

"Fair enough." He nodded. "_To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly_."

"Who said that?" Neal asked.

"Samuel Johnson." Chloe answered before Moz could. "Words to live by I would say." She mumbled, casting a significant glance at Neal before giving Oliver all her attention.

Neal sat back and watched Chloe and Oliver as Moz cleaned and patched the wound. It was obvious to Neal after about five minutes that Chloe and Oliver were not sleeping together. She cared for him, really cared for him, he was more than a friend but not in a romantic way. They had a history, a serious history, they'd been through some serious stuff together and that made Neal pause because that meant that Chloe had been through some serious stuff, stuff that Neal hadn't been there for.

Moz walked over to the sink to clean up and Neal made his way over to her as Chloe razzed Oliver about his gunshot wound.

"You knew where she was?" Neal asked and there was no way for Moz to get out of the discussion this time.

"Yes." Moz nodded when he realized that he couldn't lie his way out of this one.

"For how long?" Neal asked and Moz paused, knowing that this was going to be the real kicker.

"Always." Moz admitted and Neal closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Moz."

"She asked me not to tell you." Moz said.

"You knew how desperate I was to find her." Neal said. "You knew the lengths that I went to and you didn't say anything."

"Look, she's been through a lot Neal and after her husband died—"

"Her husband died?" Neal swallowed, staring at Moz in astonishment. "Wait, she was _married_?"

"I think this is a conversation that you need to have with Chloe." Moz pointed out.

"Well she doesn't want to talk to me." Neal shoved his hands in his pockets. "She seems to be mad at me for some reason." Neal looked over at Moz. "You wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

Moz opened his mouth then closed it and shook his head. "You need to talk to Chloe." He nodded over Neal's shoulder as Chloe walked up to them.

"Thanks Moz, I really appreciate it."

"He's fine for now but he really should see a doctor." Moz told her.

"We've got someone back in Metropolis." Chloe assured him. "I can personally guarantee that he'll get checked out as soon as we get home."

Moz nodded and walked away, leaving Chloe and Neal in alone in the makeshift kitchen area. "I suppose I need to thank you too." Chloe said and Neal chuckled.

"Don't sound so enthusiastic about it." Neal said and Chloe groaned leaning up against the cabinet.

"Sorry it's been a long day." Chloe's head dropped forward and she rubbed her neck.

"Chloe—" Neal started and Chloe held up a hand cutting him off. She knew that tone, that was Neal's _we need to talk_ tone and she really honestly couldn't handle that right now, not after everything else that had happened in the last 48 hours.

"Not now." Chloe said shaking her head. "I know we need to talk but just not now."

"When?" Neal asked her.

"Look, there's something I need to do here, it's really important and really time sensitive but after that…I promise."

"Your thing that's not a con?" Neal raised his eyebrows at her and she shook her head, offering him a low chuckle.

"If you want to get technical…" She said, not denying that she was running some sort of con but not outright admitting it.

"And you're not just going to run away again?" Neal asked and Chloe opened her mouth to remind him yet again that she didn't run away when they heard someone outside the door.

"Leave him alone Peter." Elizabeth called out and Neal looked up panicked as two sets of footsteps got closer.

"He's the one that insisted we come to this thing and then disappears right when diner is served." Peter called back. "Something's going on."

Neal looked around the room, the bloody rags piled on the table combined with the man sitting at his table with a gunshot wound and he panicked. "He can't see this." Neal said. "I can't let him…he _can't_ see this."

"Relax." Chloe smiled and pushed herself off the edge of the counter and turned around. "Unzip me and get him into the other room." Neal obeyed without really knowing why and Chloe's bloodstained dress dropped the ground and all the guys whistled as she stepped out of it standing in only her bra and underwear and heals.

"Did you wear the garter belt just for me?" Oliver asked weakly as they helped Oliver out of the chair and carried him to the other side of the room.

"Shut up." Chloe glared at him over her shoulder.

"Bart's going to kill us when he finds out he missed this." Victor said and they all froze for a second at the mention of Bart. Chloe ran her fingers through her hair a few times and then shook it out and pulled the door open with a high pitched laugh.

Her laughter died in her throat, which granted, was what was supposed to happen, only it was supposed to be an act, she wasn't expecting herself to actually be surprised. There was no way to get around it however when she opened the door and saw Peter Burke standing there.

She swallowed hard and forced herself to stay in character. "You're not Neal." She smiled at him drunkenly.

"Uh…no…I uh." Peter seemed just as frozen as Chloe just standing there staring at her current state of undress in surprise. Elizabeth slapped him on the shoulder and he seemed to find his manners, looking away embarrassed.

"Can I help you?" Chloe asked.

"No." Elizabeth smiled and grabbed Peter's arm. "No, not at all."

"If you're looking for Neal, he should be back in a minute, he just ran out to get more champagne." Chloe offered.

"No we're fine." Elizabeth said heading back down the stairs.

"I'll catch up with him downstairs." Peter said.

Chloe closed the door and leaned her head against the cool wood. "Peter Burke?" She asked in a whisper turning her head to face Neal and he stepped forward.

"Chloe I can explain."

She held up a hand to stop him. "He thinks you're getting more champagne, he's probably expecting to run into you on the stairs."

"Chloe…" Neal said again.

"He'll come back." Chloe looked at Neal properly. "If he doesn't find you he'll come back you know he will."

Neal looked at Chloe then the door and groaned. "I'll be right back." He said annoyed, pulling his jacket off and untucking his shirt a bit before heading out onto the balcony and down the back stairs.

"Ok, we've got five minutes, max." Chloe said suddenly. "Get him up." She motioned for the guys to help Oliver as she slipped her dress back on.

"Wait, what's happening? Where are you going?" Moz asked her.

"I'm getting the hell out of here." Chloe said.

"What?" Moz asked. "Why?"

"Really?" Chloe looked at him. "Peter freaking Burke that's why. What the hell is he doing here? What the hell is he looking for Neal like…"

"It's complicated." Moz said.

"It's Peter Burke." Chloe said picking up the wads of bloody cloths. "The man I spent years hiding him from the man who put him in jail and they're just friends now?"

"They work together." Moz offered.

"They _work_ together?" Chloe froze.

"You need to let him explain." Moz said as she walked to the balcony. "You can't just run out on him again."

"Why do the two of you keep insisting that I'm the one that ran away."

"Because you did." Moz said angrily. "Before you got taken you ran and when you got back you disappeared."

Chloe stopped and hung her head. "Yeah ok, fair enough. You want to get technical, I ran away. But did you ever ask yourself why? Did you ever ask Neal? Did you ever ask Kate?"

"Kate?" Moz frowned really confused. "What does Kate have to do with you leaving she wasn't even…something happened didn't it? Kate did something or said something…"

"She turned me in, handed me over to _them_ and Neal…" She stopped and shook her head. "And now he's here, with Peter Burke and I can't take the chance that he's gonna turn me in again."

"Turn you in, what are you talking about?" Moz asked as she started down the back steps but she'd disappeared around the corner before he'd even made it half way down.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **The flashback of Chloe and Neal is set during Season 7 of Smallville, more particularly in the middle of the season finale – Arctic. When Neal talks about her being in the hospital that's when Brainiac attacked her and then I sort of created my own timeline after that. In this world there are weeks between Chloe getting attacked by Brainiac and arrested by DDS, not hours. Everything else in Smallville canon happened up to that point except Chloe and Jimmy hadn't officially gotten back together.

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_Chloe's head tilted back, her cheek brushing against the crisp white hotel sheets as his lips slid from her jaw to her neck. "Neal…" she breathed out in a whisper. She wasn't sure if she was begging him or praising him and it didn't matter as she felt him smile against her skin. _

_The hands that had been tangled in his hair moved to cup his cheeks and she pulled his head up, looking into his eyes. His tongue darted out, wetting his bottom lip and Chloe instantly forgot what she'd wanted to say. He smiled even larger and pushed himself up to her, his naked chest sliding across hers, creating an almost unbearable friction and Chloe gasped at the pleasure, closing her eyes tight. She wondered how something so simple as skin on skin contact could feel so good, wondered if there was such a thing as feeling too good and then he stopped. _

"_Chloe," he whispered, his voice just as breathless as hers had been and she opened her eyes to see him right there, his face hovering inches from hers, his breath tickling against her already sensitive lips. His smile was gone now, replaced by something else, something serious, something that Chloe could feel deep down in her bones and she shivered at the weight of it. _

_Neal must have felt it too because he leaned forward, closing the last inch of space between the two of them and his lips touched hers, soft but insistent. Chloe's hands moved back to his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair, holding on tightly to the strands as if they was the only thing keeping her tethered to the earth, like if she let go, she'd float away._

_Neal's hands gripped at her hips, feeling the same thing she was, using Chloe as an anchor, keeping him in that place, in that moment. "Chloe," he breathed into her mouth and this time his voice was desperate, practically begging her to tell him that she felt it too, that her world was spinning out of control like his was. _

_She tightened her grip on his hair and he pulled away, looking into her eyes. His breath caught in his throat, terrified she was going to tell him this was a mistake, that they should stop and never do it again. And then she smiled, big and bright, her eyes slightly wet with tears. "Neal," she said, a soft laugh in her voice, a tender look in her eyes and he let out his breath _knowing_ in that moment that she felt it too. He smiled brightly at her and leaned down kissing her again. _

_Only this kiss was different, more frantic and insistent and Chloe surged up to meet him. Every stroke of his tongue against hers felt like a fire coursing through her veins and she could taste a hint of champagne and strawberries and it just made her want more. He pulled her closer to him and slid his knee between her legs and Chloe tore her lips from his unable to contain her moan as his fingers moved from her hips and across her stomach—_

Chloe gasped, sitting up straight in bed, her breath coming too fast, making her dizzy. Her whole body was flushed by the memory of the dream and the ache that she felt between her legs was nothing compared to the ache that she felt in her chest.

She missed him. The realization of that was like a punch to the gut and Chloe had to suck in a breath to keep from passing out. When everything had gone down between them it had all happened so fast that Chloe didn't really have time to process it. Then when she finally did process it, she'd just been so angry at him she never realized that in all that anger, she missed him.

She missed what they had, she missed what they could have had and before she knew it tears were running down her face. Seeing him again brought back feelings that she'd been bottling up inside for years and she'd be so wholly unprepared for them that she was surprised it had taken this long to hit her. She was tempted to force herself to stop crying, to tell herself to get over it that he wasn't worth it but she couldn't because that was a lie, he was worth it and that made it hurt all the more so she laid back down and curled herself into a small ball and just let it all out.

An hour later Chloe stepped out of the shower feeling more refreshed than she had in a long time, feeling as if a weight had been taken off her shoulder, a weight she hadn't even known she was carrying. She'd cried for a while and then stood under the shower and let the hot spray wash over her, rinse it all away until the water turned cold and her arms and legs were covered with goose bumps.

She grabbed some clothes from her bag and took a deep breath, smelling coffee wafting through the apartment, more specifically her personal favorite brand of coffee. Chloe reached for the phone sitting on the bedside table and pulled up the message screen, typing up a quick, '_What's your position?'_ to Victor. He'd called before she'd gotten in the shower to let her know that he and AC were still on stake-out but they could have come back.

She got a response back very quickly saying, '_Same, is there a problem?'._

'_Not sure, standby_', she sent back and dressed quickly, sliding the phone in her pocket as she walked out of the bedroom. The apartment was the same one they always used in New York on JLA business and only her and the team had keys to it, much less knew where it was. Vic and AC were out and Oliver was at his New York penthouse, keeping up appearances and Bart was…Chloe shook her head to keep from thinking about it.

Dinah was on the outs with the team at the moment, another argument with Oliver about how he ran things, or more specifically about how he let Chloe run things. Last Chloe knew the canary had flown the coup to Switzerland of all places. Chloe had sent her a message but Dinah had been really mad and Chloe was sure that she wasn't ready yet to let bygones be bygones, even for Bart, which certainly didn't win her any points with any of them.

Chloe walked out into the living room and froze when she saw the bouquet of tulips sitting on the kitchen bar, her breath in her throat. "Neal," she whispered, her heart beating fast and she wasn't sure if it was because she was scared or excited at the prospect of him being there. She'd finally told Mozzie where she was staying after the twentieth time he called her, knowing it was the only way that he would leave her alone but she'd been sure that he wouldn't tell Neal. Maybe she'd been wrong.

"Hey." Oliver said, walking out of the kitchen holding two cups of coffee a smile on his face. He held one of the cups out to her and she took it absently, sipping it without really tasting it. Oliver frowned and noticed her staring at the tulips. "Yeah, I couldn't get shoes on such short notice."

Chloe tore her gaze away flowers and felt herself breath again. "They're from you?" She asked in relief and Oliver nodded.

"Yeah. Just a little, 'sorry I didn't listen to you and got shot' token." Oliver shrugged.

His words seemed to bring her back to the present and she turned to him alarmed, setting her coffee cup down. "You got shot!" She said, her eyes wide.

"Yeah I did. Yesterday. You were there remember. There was blood and a lot of yelling, mostly from you." Oliver said in amusement and she glared at him, pushing him down into a seat at the kitchen table, lifting his shirt up to inspect the wound.

"Did you change the bandages this morning?" She asked.

"It's uh…sort of in an awkward place." Oliver admitted and Chloe got up and walked to the bathroom, emerging a few minutes later with a handful of gauze and tape and rubbing alcohol. "So are you…ok?" Oliver asked, looking down at her as she peeled away the old dressing and started to clean the wound.

"You're the one who got shot." Chloe mumbled absently.

"Yeah but Victor said you sounded kind of weird when he talked to you this morning." Oliver said and Chloe closed her eyes in embarrassment then pulled out her phone and sent Victor a quick '_All clear' _text.

"Victor should mind his own business." Chloe said, going back to clean the wound.

"He's worried about you and I am too." Oliver said, taking a deep breath to steal himself for what he was about to ask. "Who was that guy last night?" Chloe didn't say anything but Oliver winced as she pressed just a little bit too hard on the wound. "Chloe."

"Oliver." Chloe snapped but he didn't back down.

"You were scared." Oliver told her. "There were times when you were terrified of this guy and times when you seemed almost happy to see him but I'm more concerned about the terrified part." Chloe didn't say anything else and Oliver sighed, watching her eyes shift to the flowers one more time. "Is something wrong?" Chloe looked up at him confused and he nodded over her shoulder. "With the flowers? I know tulips are your favorite. These are French Tulips, I saw some like that at your apartment, drying in the window so I thought you liked them."

"I do." Chloe assured him, cleaning up the mess.

"Are you sure because when you saw them you looked like you'd seen a ghost?" Oliver said.

"Neal." Chloe said again, taking a deep breath and turning around to face Oliver and for the first time in a while, her past. "The last person that sent me French Tulips was Neal." Chloe said. "The one's hanging in the window, those are from him."

"Oh." Oliver said but didn't go any further, allowing Chloe to tell him what she wanted when she wanted, not pressing her.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

**Four Years Ago…**

Chloe walked up the steps to the Talon apartment and stopped when she saw a small bouquet of white tulips sitting in front of her door. She frowned and bent down to pick it up, carrying it inside. She set the vase on the bar and pulled the card out confused.

_Nicole, _

_The flowers are a Thank You for the assist in Copenhagen. I realize it's been far too long since I've seen you last, and I'll passing through Metropolis on my way to Australia this Friday so I've got us both rooms at our hotel for the whole weekend, no excuses. Reservations already under your name, _

_Love Simon. _

Chloe found herself smiling. "Neal," she whispered softly. She'd been so mad when he went off to Copenhagen with Alex without waiting for backup. Then she'd just been relieved when she finally got him back, safe, on American soil. Then she'd gotten mad again so of course he had to go do something like this, he always made it nearly impossible for Chloe to stay mad at him, which just generally made her mad at him all over again. She'd been anxious to see him since he got in, wanted to see for herself that he was really alright but both of their schedules had been hectic and even now she wasn't sure she could spare a whole weekend, no matter how badly she wanted to.

"Wow you're smiling, did Jimmy fall into a man hole?" Chloe looked up as Lois walked in behind her and rolled her eyes. "Wait, sorry that's my fantasy not yours. More flowers really? Could he be more unoriginal?" Lois groaned then studied the bouquet. "Wait a minute these are—these are not Jimmy Olsen tulips. They're not day-old half wilted-bought on a street corner for five dollars tulips." Lois pulled one of the flowers out of the vase and Chloe had to ball her hands into fists at her side so she didn't grab it back and say "mine" like a five year old. Lois put the flower up to her nose and took a deep breath, inhaling the scent and frowned again. "These are real tulips, French tulips."

"How do you even know that?" Chloe laughed.

"You get a lot of flowers when you date Oliver Queen. Got a bouquet with every apology and he had to apologize a lot but you know Ollie, he never did anything half way." Lois shrugged, slipping the flower back in the vase then stopping to look at it more closely. "And this is definitely not Jimmy Olsen. His are normally wrapped in newspaper." Lois lifted the small ceramic vase up to study it closer.

Chloe frowned, just noticing it for the first time. It was white with blue flowers and when Lois tilted it slightly Chloe caught sight of the familiar brown ring around the outer edge and the blue green ring around the inner edge and she grabbed the vase from Lois, pulling it closer to study the markings, recognizing it instantly as a piece from the Ming Dynasty. "Damn it Neal." She muttered under her breath, carefully pulling the 700 year old piece of ceramic, worth roughly five hundred thousand dollars, from her very clumsy cousin's hands and set it down gently back on the counter.

"No they aren't from Jimmy." Chloe shook her head.

"Oh, this keeps getting better." Lois pulled out a bar stool and sat down. "So who would send you flowers besides Jimmy?" Lois thought about it. "They're not from Oliver are they cause they're kind of his style?"

"Why would Oliver Queen be sending me flowers?" Chloe frowned.

"Oh please, you think I don't know about the little side jobs you do for him and his leather clad super friends?" Lois snorted.

Chloe opened her mouth then closed it again, nothing to say to that. "They're not from Oliver. He hasn't needed to apologize to me in a while and he when he does, it comes in the form of shoes rather than flowers."

"I knew it." Lois jumped up. "I knew there was no way you could afford those Manolo's on a reporter's salary. Are you sleeping with him?"

Chloe choked on the coffee and laughed. "Oliver Queen? God no."

"That's so not fair. I slept with him—a lot, like _a lot_ and I never got shoes." Lois pouted.

"Well not to belittle your skill in the bedroom, but I do provide a slightly more important service than you did." Chloe said.

"Like what?" Lois asked her.

"Like making sure that he can get in and out of Lex's 33.1 labs without being shot or captured and experimented on." Chloe said and Lois grunted.

"Ok, you might have a point there." Lois said thinking that one over, but all thoughts of Oliver and Chloe and the types of services her cousin might or might not be providing for Oliver vanished when she saw the card lying on the counter. "Who is Nicole?" Lois frowned reading the note.

"That's me." Chloe grabbed for the card but Lois pulled it out of her reach.

"Copenhagen? Our hotel?" Lois asked. "Who the hell is Simon—" Lois gasped and looked over at her cousin. "This is him, this is the guy. Your blue eyed thief!"

"He's not _my_ blue eyed thief." Chloe said taking the card back.

"Whatever." Lois smirked. "I can't believe you're still in touch with him."

"We don't chat on the phone every day or anything." Chloe said sliding the card in her back pocket, it was really more like every other day.

"Simon's not his real name is it? Cause I never pictured him as a Simon." Lois asked and Chloe shook her head.

"Simon and Nicole are characters from an old movie, How to Steal a Million." Chloe explained, knowing if she didn't Lois wouldn't let it up. "Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. Audrey's character Nicole get's Peter's character Simon, whom she thinks is a thief, to steal a statue for her.

"Like you got him to steal that thing from Lex for you." Lois smiled. "Cute. So are you going to go?"

"Go where?"

"Your hotel." Lois said. "This weekend."

"No." Chloe turned around so that Lois didn't see the uncertainty in her face.

"Well, I think you should go." Lois said sniffing the flowers.

"Really?" Chloe turned around. "Why?"

"You had this goofy smile on your face when I walked in and you haven't had that goofy smile in a long time. And because he's different and exciting and so totally not Jimmy Olsen." Lois jumped up from her stool her eyes wide and excited as she remembered something. "And because the first time you saw him he literally took your breath away."

"How do you know that?" Chloe's eyes went wide.

"I was on the phone with you remember?" Lois smirked, thinking that there was no way that Chloe could argue with her reasoning.

"Right." Chloe nodded. "But it's not like that, Neal and I—"

"Neal?" Lois smiled, trying out the name. "I like that. Chloe and Neal."

"Neal and I are just friends." Chloe insisted. She could literally see the wheels turning in Lois' head and she had to stop her cousin before Lois planned their wedding. "Look, me and Jimmy are weird right now and Neal has this thing with Kate that I can't even begin to try and figure out. We're just friends."

"Fine, whatever. I still think you should go this weekend." Lois said. "You don't ever have any time to yourself and even if it's just as friends, I think it'll do you some good." Chloe knew Lois was right, she just wasn't sure she could justify taking time to herself with everything that was going on with Clark. "And you and Jimmy aren't weird, your over and he can't seem to grasp that concept and I think him chasing after you like this is just making it harder for you to grasp too."

"I know." Chloe banged her head on counter. "Your right. I know your right. But Jimmy is—"

"Safe." Lois said. "Jimmy Olsen is safe and you think you need a guy whose safe but you don't. You need a guy with blue eyes who steals things for you and takes your breath away."

"Yeah?" Chloe asked and took a deep breath. "Yeah." She nodded.

"Why is he going to Austrailia?" Lois frowned remembering what he'd said in the letter.

"He's not going to Australia." Chloe smiled. "It's a line from a movie. James Garner, Support Your Local Sheriff. He plays a con man who's on his way to Australia. It's just a little inside joke."

"Never seen it." Lois said.

"Ok." Chloe set her coffee cup down and grabbed her bag. "You and I are going to rent some movies tonight that do not involve sharks in any way shape or form."

"Where is the fun in that?" Lois asked following Chloe out of the room.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Did you go?" Oliver asked, bringing Chloe back to the present.

"Yeah." Chloe nodded. ""Lex was missing and Lana had run off and I'd just gotten out of the hospital and Jimmy was hounding me, trying to get back together and I needed to just get away. That was the last time I saw him." Her smile fell.

"What happened?" Oliver asked and Chloe closed her eyes shaking her head. Oliver nodded, she wasn't ready yet so he'd drop it. "So Friday night," Oliver changed the subject, "I'm going to need another tux, obviously, that blood is never going to come out and I owe you some 'I'm sorry' shoes."

"I don't need any shoes, the flowers were enough." Chloe assured him then stopped. "What do you mean you're going to need a new tux?"

"For the auction." Oliver said holding out his cup for her to refill.

"You are not going to go to the auction." Chloe snapped at him.

"You're not going alone, you can't." Oliver reminded her. "And Vic and AC can't go, they'd never pull it off."

"_You _can't pull it off." Chloe slammed the newly refilled cup in front of him. "You were shot last night. You can't even walk straight and if he catches on and puts two and two together, it's not just you and me that will be screwed it's Bart do you get that? I'll figure something else out." She said before storming out of the room.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Neal!" Diana snapped her fingers in front of Neal's face and he looked around the room. Jones, Diana, and Peter were all staring at him.

"Sorry, what?" He asked confused.

"Any of these cases appeal to you?" Peter asked.

Neal froze, he hadn't really heard any of the cases. "Oh, uh, no not really."

"No?" Peter looked at Jones then back at Neal. "The diamond heist didn't interest you? Or the international art theft? Or even the DaVinci forgery found at the Met?" Peter tossed him the stack of files.

"Someone managed to get a forgery into the Met?" Neal dug through the files intrigued but still not nearly as eagerly as Peter had expected. "There are no forger's in here." Neal frowned. "No diamond heist or International art theft either." Neal looked up at Peter. "These are all Mortgage fraud cases."

"I know." Peter smiled but noticed that Neal didn't seem to appreciate the joke. "Guys can we have the room?"

Diana grabbed the files off the table and followed Jones out of the room leaving Peter and Neal alone. "What's going on with you today?" Peter asked sitting across the table from Neal. "Your mind's been somewhere else since, well June's party." Peter smiled suddenly and leaned back. "Is this about the girl?"

"Huh? What girl?" Neal asked and Peter smiled even larger.

"The girl! The half naked one that was in your room. _That_ girl." Peter said and Neal's face fell instantly. "Ah this _is_ about the girl…but not in the way that I think." Peter studied Neal. "Neal, talk to me. Who was she?"

Neal looked up at Peter and sighed running his hand through his hair and Peter _knew_ something was up. "It was her."

"Who her?" Peter asked.

"Peter, it was _her_." Neal said.

"Her?" Peter leaned back and thought. Neal watched as comprehension seemed to dawn on him. "_Her_ her? Chloe?" Peter leaned forward and Neal nodded.

"What—I mean how—what was she doing at the party?"

"June invited her." Neal laughed bitterly.

"But where has she been?" Peter asked.

"I have no idea." Neal shook his head.

"Where did she come from?" Peter asked.

"I have no idea." Neal scoffed.

"Well where is she now?"

"I have no idea." Neal said.

"Neal—"

"I have no idea Peter." Neal pushed himself away from the table angrily. "I haven't seen her in five years and then she's just there, at the party, smiling and laughing and with this _guy_ and then just as quickly as she shows up she's gone. Again. And I'm left with all these questions. Again. And this time…" Neal let out a deep breath. "This time I think she's really in trouble."

"That's what you said last time." Peter reminded him softly.

Neal frowned. "Yeah, well I'm still not sure I was wrong about that."

"Neal—" Peter sighed. "You searched for her for a year, I searched for her for almost four. If she'd really been taken by DDS I would have found her. Maybe it's time to reconsider that she just…left you."

"No." Neal said forcefully, startling Peter. "You don't understand there's no way that she would just disappear Peter, no way she'd walk out on me. Not after—"

"Not after what?" Peter said. "What happened? You never told me. What happened that made you so sure she didn't just leave?"

"I'd just gotten back from Copenhagen with Alex." Neal sat back down. "After Kate backed out, Chloe was going to take her place. It wasn't really her thing but she knew it was a three person job and she said she wasn't going to leave me hanging." Neal smiled at the memory of Chloe, hands on her hips and she chewed him out for even thinking of going in one man down. She wasn't over the moon about the whole "stealing the music box" thing but she knew it mattered to Neal and he was going to do it either way.

"But Chloe wasn't in Copenhagen with you and Alex." Peter frowned.

"No something happened, she never really explained to me what it was but she was in the hospital for a while. She wanted us to wait until she was better but we couldn't, we were on a strict timeline so we went without her." Neal coughed. "She's the one who got me out of the country when it all went south. She got Alex to France, got her the medical help she needed and all with one phone call, from her hospital bed."

"She sounds pretty incredible." Peter offered, mesmerized by the goofy look on Neal's face. As if he realized that Peter was looking at him Neal immediately whipped his features and got back to the story.

"So I get back and Kate had vanished. This wasn't the first time she'd gotten mad and left but it felt different. It felt final somehow. And Chloe had broken up with her boyfriend and I guess…I don't know, I just needed to see her." Peter smiled and leaned back in his seat as Neal told his story.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

**Four Years Ago**

"Neal!" Chloe called out from the doorway to her hotel room. "The desk clerk said you were in my room? Why are you in my room?" When he didn't answer Chloe frowned. "Are you in my room?"

"I'm in the bathroom." Neal called out and Chloe dropped her bag next to the bed which she noticed was strangely devoid of its comforter and all the pillows. She made a mental note to call housekeeping and then walked to the bathroom.

"Neal." Chloe smirked leaning against the door frame, watching as he made what looked like a fort in the large tub with all the bedding from her bed and what looked like the stuff from his as well.

"Good you came, I thought for a second you might not." He smirked at her over his shoulder.

"For a second I almost didn't." Chloe said. "What are you doing in my bathroom?'

"The acoustics are better in here." Neal said. "And I found the sweet spot," he smiled at her and sat on the edge of the tub, pulling off his shoes and patting the pallet of blankets and pillows.

"The sweet spot?" Chloe frowned looking around the bathroom in confusion until her eyes landed on the record player sitting on the vanity, a stack of vinyls beside it. Chloe walked over and flipped through the records, her eyes lighting up as she noticed it was all her favorites. Clapton, Hendrix, Zeppelin, even some Chuck Berry, and B.B. King.

In the beginning, Chloe and Neal's relationship had been strictly professional. One of them only contacting the other when they needed something that the other person was more qualified to deliver and always by phone, it was just too risky to be seen together.

But one day Neal had just shown up at Isis. Chloe had gotten back from getting a cup of coffee and he was sitting at her desk, on her computer. She yelled at him for twenty minutes about showing up unannounced and then another twenty minutes about client confidentiality when she realized he'd been going through the Isis files. He was surprisingly quiet for a while before asking her if it was true, the things he'd seen in the files, the things those people could do and Chloe had hesitated only a second before nodding.

They ended up ordering Chinese food as Chloe spent the evening telling Neal all about Smallville and the meteor rocks and her wall of weird and he told her about meeting Mozzie and working for Adler and Kate. Then the conversation moved onto art and antiquities and then music. They both agreed that vinyl was the only way to go and Chloe assumed, based on his love for fine art that he would be a classical music fan but he surprised her by admitting to a secret love of classic rock.

Chloe admitted that one could not grow up with Lois Lane listening to anything else and while her cousin preferred the more Heavy Metal hair bands, Chloe developed a deep love of Blues Rock that Neal surprisingly shared. The Who, Cream, The Stones, Led Zeppelin.

"_It's that guitar." Chloe had said wistfully. "You can feel a good guitar in the bottom of your spine." _

_"Yes!" Neal agreed excitedly. _

"_I mean, what is quite possibly the most iconic musical moment of all time?" Chloe asked, her eyes sparkling with passion. "That moment when Hendrix stood up on the stage and poured out the Star Spangled Banner in a way that no one had ever done before? Or Clapton just exploding out of the gate with Layla? Guitars, they just…you know?" Chloe asked and Neal nodded. "The first time I heard Zeppelin's Travelin' Riverside Blues…I swear it was almost a religious experience." Chloe admitted and Neal laughed. _

_From there they got onto the topic of how much those artists were influenced by the originals blues men, BB King and Muddy Waters, "Robert Johnson." Neal said and Chloe's eyes went wide in genuine surprise. "He's all over Zeppelin, you can hear him in practically everything they did." Chloe had never met anyone else in her life who had heard of Robert Johnson much less his music. _

"_You know Robert Johnson?" Chloe asked him in disbelief and he smiled, almost blushing under her gaze. "I love Robert Johnson." Chloe said in astonishment. _

"_Have you ever heard him on vinyl?" Neal asked stealing the last pot sticker. _

"_I wish." Chloe glared as he shoved the pot sticker in his mouth. "Originals are practically non existent and the reissues from the sixties were pressed in limited quantities. I've been looking for one for years, it's nearly impossible to find." Chloe narrowed her eyes at him. "Tell me you have a copy." _

_Neal snorted. "If you couldn't find one, what makes you think I could?" _

"_It would be amazing wouldn't it?" Chloe asked wistfully. "To hear it as it was meant to be heard?" _

And from then it was almost a mission for the two of them. Chloe would literally stop whatever she was doing at any given time if she passed an antique shop or record store and drag whoever she was with inside and looked through cartons and stacks of old dusty records for hours on end searching for that record and never finding it. So imagine her surprise when the record in the bottom of the stack was Robert Johnson's_ King of the Delta Blues Singers_, mint condition, still wrapped in plastic.

"You found one?" Chloe asked picking up the case and flipping it over in her hands.

"Took me three years." Neal smiled then turned away. "But I found it about a month ago at this second hand shop in the Village. The guy didn't know what he had."

Chloe frowned, something in his voice not quite right. Not a con but not the truth. "You've had it for a month and you haven't listened yet?"

"I was waiting for you." Neal shook his head and that was the truth. She traced her fingers over the lettering on the front and smiled in spite of herself. "Open it." Neal whispered and Chloe looked up at him. He lifted up the champagne bottle in his hand and then slid into the large tub, plopping himself down into the cushions and getting comfortable.

Chloe tore off the plastic and slid the disc out staring at it for a second, smooth and unscratched and perfect and she dropped it onto the turntable, moving the needle over the outer edge and letting it fall. She heard the quiet scratching of the needle on vinyl and then the opening strands of Cross Road Blues echoed through the room. Chloe closed her eyes and kicked off her shoes as Neal popped the cork on the champagne and she padded barefoot over to the tub, settling in next to him. He passed her a glass and she took it laughing as the music bounced around the room, reverberating deep in her bones. "So what's this all about?" She asked him. "The champagne and the music."

"Jimmy broke up with you and you said you were ok and I think you thought you were. And then he decided that he wanted you back and started going after you again and in the middle of all of that I just don't think that you got to properly…mourn the relationship."

"You don't think I'm over Jimmy?" Chloe turned to him.

"I think you're over Jimmy." Neal nodded. "But I don't think you're over the breakup."

"Is that even possible?" Chloe frowned.

"You and Jimmy were over, you knew that and he knew that but he broke up with you before you could break up with him. You didn't want him anymore but no one likes to get dumped. The thing is you may not miss Jimmy but you missed the relationship and you thought because you didn't miss Jimmy it would be stupid to mourn the relationship."

Chloe frowned because he made a lot of sense. If she took Jimmy out of the equation personally there was still another person that was a very large part of her life, another person that she shared her days and hopes for the future and her home with and then suddenly he was gone and she was alone. She didn't miss Jimmy but she didn't want to be alone and that's what she had been for the past six months, alone. She didn't realize she was crying until Neal was pulling her against him, telling her she was going to be ok. She cried for a while but when she was done she didn't pull away and Neal didn't seem in any hurry for her to move so she stayed where she was. It felt nice, comfortable and she liked it.

"How long have you really had this?" Chloe asked listening to the music and turned her head to Neal who looked at her with practiced innocence. Chloe didn't buy it though and she narrowed her eyes. "Neal, do you really expect me to believe that you just happened to find this after three years, right now?"

"I've always had it." Neal admitted. "Since before I met you." Chloe stared at him in confusion. "I could never bring myself to break the seal."

"But you broke it now?" Chloe asked him. "Why?"

"Cause I wanted to see you smile." Neal shrugged and Chloe smiled at that and leaned her head back on Neal's shoulder.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"We're out of champagne." Chloe said two hours later stumbling a little on her way back toward the bathtub after starting the record over again. She turned the empty bottle upside down and Neal grabbed it from her and set it on the edge of the bathtub then caught her as she fell back into the cushions.

"That means it's time for phase two." Neal said pulling himself out of the tub and straightening his suit.

"There's a phase two?" Chloe smiled at him. "Does phase two involve more champagne?"

"Definitely." Neal said. "All phases of this plan involve champagne."

"How many phases are there?" Chloe asked.

"At the moment just two, but if I come up with a phase three, champagne will be involved." Neal promised as someone knocked at the door.

"Is that the champagne?" Chloe asked craning her neck to look into the room as Neal called out for them to enter.

"Nope." Neal said. "But this will get us to the champagne," he leaned his head out of the bathroom into the bedroom. "We're in here."

"_Get_ us to the champagne?" Chloe asked. "You mean the champagne isn't coming to us?"

"No." Neal held out a hand to Chloe who looked at it but didn't take it.

"As you requested sir." A porter walked into the room carrying two large garment bags.

"Thank you, hang them up over there." Neal said, his hand still held out to Chloe. The porter glanced quickly at Chloe sitting in the bathtub, cradling an empty bottle of champagne in her lap but he wisely didn't say anything, simply moved to the closet that Neal indicated and hung the garment bags, unzipping them both and pulling out the clothes and hanging them in the closet.

"I'm starting to think that phase two is going to involve me putting on a fancy dress and getting out of the bathtub."

"It does indeed." Neal said. "Wow, that's some amazing investigating you're doing here."

"I don't want to get out of the bathtub." Chloe pouted and Neal smiled. "Phase one is working for me, I have champagne, I have Robert Johnson, and being in the bathtub does not require me to wear what appears to be nothing more than a very expensive nightgown and…" Chloe looked around Neal to the porter who was pulling a pair of shoes out the bag now. "What looks like four inch heels."

"You're out of champagne." Neal reminded her.

"At the moment but I'm sure…" Chloe looks past Neal again to the porter who moved onto the second bag and was pulling out a very nice handmade suit. "I'm sorry what is your name?"

"Nathan." The porter smiled.

"Nathan." Chloe smiled. "I'm sure that Nathan will be more than willing to go get me another bottle."

"Of course ma'am." Nathan nodded and Chloe looked up at Neal triumphantly.

"We're wallowing." Neal said. "And that's fine, wallowing was phase one, but phase one is over and it's time for phase two."

"And what is phase two exactly?"

"Moving on." Neal said holding out his hand.

Chloe looked around at the comfy warm nest she'd made in the bathtub and then over at the blue silk dress hanging up. It was pretty and if she knew Neal like she thought she knew Neal it would fit her like a glove. Something he said caught up with her and she frowned at him. "Why are you wallowing?"

"What?" Neal asked confused.

"You said, '_we're_' wallowing, why are you wallowing?" Chloe said then realization dawned. "Kate?"

"I haven't seen her since I got back from Copenhagen." Neal said quietly.

"But that's what you do." Chloe reminded him. "Kate gets mad and leaves for a few months and then she comes back to you, she always comes back."

"I don't think…" Neal stopped to order his thoughts. "I don't think I want her to come back this time. I'm tired of chasing her."

The record hissed and the needle slid over the vinyl to the next song.

_And I feel so lonesome_

_You hear me when I moan_

As Johnson crooned on about being lonesome Chloe realized that for the first time in a long time she wasn't lonely. She looked up at Neal and smiled, sliding her hand into his and allowing him to pull her out of the tub. She was done wallowing and it was time to move on. "You're _promising_ me champagne?" She asked and he nodded. "Fine but I'm not wearing the shoes."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal climbed out of the car and tossed the keys to the valet before running around to the other side and opening the passenger side door. He offered Chloe his arm and she took it gratefully allowing him to help her out onto the street. "I can't believe you talked me into wearing the shoes." She said.

"I can't either actually." Neal said with a laugh. "You must have had more champagne than I thought."

"So where are we and why am I wearing these shoes?" Chloe looked around the streets of downtown Metropolis, vaguely recognizing the building. Neal smiled and moved to the side revealing the very large sign in front of the doors that read:

_**We welcome you to the wedding reception of**_

_**Michael and Bethany Sorenson**_

_**Ballroom C**_

"A wedding?" Chloe asked. "This is how you get me over my breakup by bringing me to a wedding?"

"Just the reception." Neal grabbed her hand and pulled her up the steps as fast as her shoes would allow her and pushed the door open. She smiled as he pulled her down the hall and into Ballroom C. "You need to see a happy couple, you need to be reminded that sometimes love does conquer all."

Chloe rolled her eyes but allowed him to pull her into the room. The music hit them first and then the laughter, it seemed like everyone was smiling and laughing and it was contagious spreading to Chloe and Neal almost immediately. "Plus there's free champagne." Neal said, snagging two glasses from a passing waiter and handing one to Chloe.

Chloe looked at the glass skeptically, staring at the small strawberry floating in the bottom of the bubbly liquid and then back up at Neal. She felt herself smiling softly at him before titling her glass at him in a toast and then downing the champagne in one gulp, chewing the strawberry quickly before smiling largely at him. "So I'm guessing we weren't invited to this wedding." Chloe slipped her free hand in Neal's.

"Not technically." Neal shook his head.

"So then how do we know Michael and Bethany Sorenson?" Chloe asked him, stealing herself for the evening ahead.

"It's a funny story actually." Neal said to her.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Oh we met Michael and Bethany when we were climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro." Chloe told the woman at the buffet line as she looked through the assorted canapés available. "It was a very intense eight days and when we finally reached the summit…something like that bonds someone for life you know." Chloe smiled and walked away, her plate piled high.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Michael saved my life." Neal told the woman next to him at their table. "True story. I was in a horrible car accident, hit by a garbage truck and my car flipped a few times. I was pinned underneath it and it was leaking gas and Michael just lifted the car off of me. One of those adrenaline things you know." The women looked over at Michael up at the head table and offered him somewhat dreamy smiles. He smiled back unsure and grabbed Bethany's hand.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"I met Bethany in collage." Chloe said to the bridesmaid next to her, checking her hair in the bathroom mirror.

"College?" The woman frowned.

"Oh yeah, we went through rush together." Chloe spun around. "Beta Kappa Omega forever!" Chloe said in her best valley girl voice before walking out of the bathroom.

"But Bethany didn't go to college." The woman said to the empty room.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Well, Bethany was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar." Neal said with a completely straight face and Chloe couldn't take it, she spun around so that the couple in front of them couldn't see her laughing.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Jail." Chloe said soberly to a man who had introduced himself as Bethany's father. The man spit his champagne out in surprise.

"You met them in Jail?" He asked, his mouth opening and closing comically like a fish.

"It was a whole huge misunderstanding. I mean we can laugh about it now but it was pretty scary." Neal shook his head.

"Jail?" He asked again baffled as he walked away and this time neither Chloe or Neal could hold in their laughter.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal grabbed another two glasses of champagne and watched as Chloe laughed with an older couple at the edge of the dance floor. The blue silk dress she was wearing fit her perfectly, sliding along her skin with every breath she took. She turned to him and her smile widened even more if that was possible. It was wild and uninhibited and completely open and it took his breath away. Neal knew that with the right smile he could get anyone to do practically anything, but after so many years of lying and conning and being anyone other than Neal Caffery, he didn't think he'd ever be able to smile at anyone the way she smiled at him.

He walked over to her, handing her the champagne glass and she slipped her arm in his like she did it all the time, like it was habit, like it just fit there and Neal was starting to think that maybe it did. "So we were in the ashram and the Maharishi turns to Michael and said, '_Don't go for what you know you can get, go for what you want'._" The couple nodded sagely and Chloe smiled. "And when we got back to the states, he proposed to Bethany."

"That's amazing." The woman said, putting a hand to her heart before her husband dragged her off to the dance floor.

"You're amazing." Neal whispered in her ear and Chloe turned to him, beaming. "What's with the strawberries?" Neal asked. "It doesn't enhance the flavor of the champagne at all."

"Ah, but the champagne does enhance the flavor of the strawberry. " She downed the glass in one sip, catching the strawberry between her teeth with a smile.

"Really?" Neal asked, his throat suddenly dry. "I'll be the judge of that." He smiled and leaned down before he could consider what he was doing and bit into the strawberry hanging out of Chloe's mouth, his lips barely brushing against hers and she opened her mouth in surprise allowing Neal to take the whole strawberry into his mouth. He didn't move, didn't pull away, he just stared straight into Chloe's eyes and chewed before swallowing and Chloe felt her breath hitch in her throat.

"You're right, that was delicious." Neal whispered.

"Yeah." Chloe said.

"You've got a little juice on your lips there." Neal said reaching out to wipe it off just as Chloe's tongue darted out and she caught the edge of his thumb, causing the both of them to suck in their breath at the contact. Neal watched as Chloe's pupils dilated and he brushed his thumb across her bottom lip and her eyes closed at the contact.

Neal wasn't sure what he was doing but Chloe wasn't stopping him so he splayed his hand across her cheek, cupping her jaw and leaned in further.

"Chloe?"

Chloe's eyes flew open and she turned away from Neal to find herself face to face with none other than Jimmy Olsen, with his camera slung around his neck and a confused look on his face. "Jimmy." Chloe swallowed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm the photographer." He said pointed dumbly to the camera. "What are you doing here?"

"I…" Chloe had been pulling crazy stories out of thin air all night but now when she really needed one, her mind was completely blank.

"She's here with me." Neal said, putting himself in the conversation. "Neal Caffery." Neal held out his hand and Jimmy just looked at it skeptically so Neal dropped it back to his side.

"I'm sorry." Chloe shook her head. "Neal Caffery this is Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy is my ex-boyfriend. Neal is my…" Chloe looked up at Neal confused as to what exactly he was to her.

"How about we start with "date" and go from there?" He asked calmly, sliding his hand onto the small of her back, instantly relaxing her muscles with that one simple touch.

"Date?" Jimmy asked, looking from Chloe to Neal and then back again. "You're dating?"

"I'm—we're—" Chloe stuttered and Neal saved her.

"Honey, I see Roger over there and he's going to give me hell at the office tomorrow if I don't go say hello."

"Right, of course." Chloe nodded.

"Come find me when you're done here." Neal smiled. "You owe me a dance."

"Right." Chloe smiled at him, unable to stop herself.

Neal looked at Jimmy out of the corner of his eye, staring at Chloe in confusion and a bit of annoyance and he couldn't help it. He grabbed Chloe's face lightly, his eyes sparkling as he leaned down and gave her a soft kiss. It was supposed to be just for show, just to wipe that stupid look off of Jimmy's face, maybe help Chloe relax but the second his lips touched hers it turned into so much more. Neal wasn't ready for the shot of electricity that shook his entire body and his hands slid from her face to the back of her neck, pulling her closer.

He felt her hand slide up his chest and fist in his shirt and she made a soft sound in the back of her throat and he forced himself to pull away before he did something stupid. They stared at each other for a second and it was just the two of them, everyone else in Ballroom C disappeared and it was just Chloe and Neal and it was like all the pieces that he'd been trying to force together for so long suddenly just fell into place.

He smiled then and it felt too big and too wide and too…open and it almost hurt, but that didn't matter because Chloe smiled back, because she'd felt it too.

"Chloe?" Jimmy asked, bursting their bubble and Neal had the urge to actually growl at him, he'd never growled at anyone but it felt like the right thing to do. Before he could experience his first growl Chloe reached up and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"I'll be right over." She said with a smile and Neal nodded dumbly walking away. He somehow made it across the room finding a guy who looked like he might be a Roger and striking up a conversation with him. If you asked him five minutes later Neal wouldn't be able to tell you what it had been about though because his attention was focused firmly on Chloe and Jimmy, standing far too close for his liking.

Jimmy was talking a mile a minute, gesturing wildly but Chloe was just shaking her head at him firmly. Her eye caught Neal's and she smiled at him, blushing a bit and that made Jimmy talk even faster if that was possible. Chloe looked around nervously as his voice rose and she reached out, putting her hand on his chest which shut him up immediately. Then she started talking, her voice calm and low and with every word Jimmy's face seemed to fall. She smiled sadly at him, leaned forward and kissed his cheek then walked over to Neal, her shoulders relaxing as she let out a deep breath and then she smiled that wild open smile at him and he couldn't help but smile back.

"Excuse me gentlemen but I believe I owe him a dance." Chloe said when she reached Neal, sliding her arm in his and pulling him off to the dance floor.

His hands settled softly on her hips and she threaded her fingers behind his neck. "So how'd it go?-" Neal nodded over her shoulder where Jimmy was standing and staring at her.

"I thought it went pretty well actually." Chloe smiled. "I told him what you told me about how he wasn't missing me, he was just missing the relationship and he insisted that no, he was in fact missing me specifically." Chloe took a deep breath. "So then I told him that it didn't matter because I wasn't missing him and asked him to please stop chasing me because I didn't want to be caught."

"By him?" Neal asked softly.

"What?" Chloe frowned.

"Just for my clarification, you said you didn't want to be caught but you just didn't want to be caught by _him_ right?" Neal looked down at her. "You haven't closed yourself off completely to being caught by someone else have you?"

"No." Chloe shook her head. "I'm very open to being caught by someone else."

"That's good to know." Neal smiled down at her.

"Just for _my_ clarification, when you said you were tired of chasing, you just meant Kate right?" Chloe asked. "You're not opposed to chasing in general are you?"

"No, I always enjoy a good chase." Neal assured her. "So it's over then? You and Jimmy?"

"Yeah it really is." Chloe nodded. "I just wish—" She stopped and shook her head.

"Wish what?" Neal asked.

"There was a time when I thought he was the one you know. I gave him a watch, a pocket watch that was my grandfathers and I just wish I hadn't done that now." Chloe said. "I could ask for it back but I don't want to be that girl." Neal nodded and something occurred to Chloe, she smiled suddenly and looked up at him. "Hey Simon."

"Yeah." Neal asked.

"Steal it for me." Chloe said and he laughed.

"You don't even have to ask Nicole." Neal pulled her closer and spun her around the dance floor, reveling in her laughter until the both of them were breathless.

"Neal?" Chloe asked panting. He looked down at her and smiled. "Catch me," she whispered.

"Always," he assured her and her smile somehow got even bigger before she lifted up onto her tip toes and crushed her lips against his and he caught her. His hands snaked around her waist to hold her in place as she devoured his lips, slipping her tongue into his mouth and his knees threatened to give out but then she caught him and he couldn't help but laugh at that, realizing that from the moment they met she'd been catching him.

It killed him to do it but he pulled away from her, brushing the hair from her eyes. "You want to get out of here?"

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

They crashed into Chloe's hotel room, tripping over each other, and yet they didn't allow a single inch of space between their bodies. They tumbled through the room, slamming into the dresser, the table, and two chairs on their quest to find the bed. But it wasn't until Neal stubbed his toe on the corner of the wall, causing him to bite down on Chloe's lip that she pulled away.

"I'm sorry." Neal grabbed her face, his voice breathless as he pulled at her lip, examining it. "It's ok, I didn't break the skin." He smiled and leaned forward to resume their kissing but Chloe pulled back, much to his dismay.

"Maybe we should slow down." Chloe said trying to catch her breath, pushing him away with a gentle hand on his chest. "We've got all weekend."

"Right." Neal took a deep breath and stepped away from her. "You're right." He couldn't help the disappointed look that crossed his face and Chloe laughed.

"I didn't say stop." She told him, giving him a soft peck on his cheek. "I said slow down." She turned and walked away, disappearing into the bathroom and Neal wasn't sure whether he should follow or not so he just stayed where he was. He heard the distinctive click of the record player turning on and then the sound of the needle sliding across the vinyl before she appeared in the doorframe. "A little mood music." She said as the opening strands of Screamin' Jay Hawkin's _I Put A Spell On You_ echoed through the bathroom and spilled into the bedroom.

Chloe reached down and pulled off one of her shoes and then the others, dropping them to the ground.

_I put a spell on you_

She smiled and walked over to Neal, flexing her toes against the carpet as she walked.

_Cause your mine_

"I am you know." He whispered as Jay crooned on, reaching out and grabbing her, pulling her flush against him. "Yours."

_I ain't lyin'_

"I have no idea when it happened but…" Chloe shut him up with a soft lazy kiss and his hands gripped her hips tightly, balling the silk fabric up in his fist. She pushed him lightly and he fell to the bed Chloe following him, climbing up into his lap and he tilted his head back further allowing her to deepen the kiss.

She pulled back suddenly, smiling and sang along with the song.

_I put a spell on you_

She climbed off his lap and held out her hand, telling him to stay where he was.

_Because you're mine_

The deep sensual saxophone spilled out into the room and Chloe slipped one strap off of her shoulder, freeing her right arm and then did the same to her left arm and then suddenly the dress was pooling around her feet on the ground. She stepped out of it and climbed back on Neal's lap, pushing him down until he was lying flat on his back. Chloe hovered over him, her hair falling softly around her face and Neal had to bite his lip to keep from singing along with the song as Jay started up again.

_I love you_

_I love you, anyhow_

_And I don't care_

_If you don't want me_

_I'm yours right now_

Chloe smiled, almost like she knew what he was doing, like she was thinking about it too and he grabbed her waist, flipping them over so he was on top now and pulling her into a bruising kiss, only pulling away long enough to pull his shirt off over his head and this time he did sing along.

_I put a spell on you_

_Cause your mine_

Chloe laughed and pulled him back down. The record moved onto the next song but Neal didn't pay any attention as Chloe slipped out of her bra.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe's head tilted back, her cheek brushing against the crisp white hotel sheets as his lips slid from her jaw to her neck. "Neal…" she breathed out in a whisper. She was not sure if she was begging him or praising him and it didn't matter as she felt him smile against her skin.

The hands that had been tangled in his hair moved to cup his cheeks and she pulled his head up, looking into his eyes. His tongue darted out, wetting his bottom lip and Chloe instantly forgot what she'd wanted to say. He smiled even larger and pushed himself up to her, his naked chest sliding across hers, creating an almost unbearable friction and Chloe gasped at the pleasure, closing her eyes tight. She wondered how something so simple as skin on skin contact could feel so good, wondered if there was such a thing as feeling too good and then he stopped.

"Chloe," he whispered, his voice just as breathless as hers had been and she opened her eyes to see him right there, his face hovering inches from hers, his breath tickling against her already sensitive lips. His smile was gone now, replaced by something else, something serious, something that Chloe could feel deep down in her bones and she shivered at the weight of it.

Neal must have felt it too because he leaned forward, closing the last inch of space between the two of them and his lips touched hers, soft but insistent. Chloe's hands moved back to his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair, holding on tightly to the strands as if it was the only thing keeping her tethered to the earth, like if she let go, she'd float away.

Neal's hands gripped at her hips, feeling the same thing she was, using Chloe as an anchor, keeping him in that place, in that moment. "Chloe," he breathed into her mouth and this time his voice was desperate, practically begging her to tell him that she felt it too, that her world was spinning out of control like his was.

She tightened her grip on his hair and he pulled away, looking into her eyes. His breath caught in his throat, terrified she was going to tell him this was a mistake, that they should stop and never do it again. And then she smiled, big and bright, her eyes slightly wet with tears. "Neal," she said, a soft laugh in her voice, a tender look in her eyes and he let out his breath knowing in that moment that she felt it too. He smiled brightly at her and leaned down kissing her again.

Only this kiss was different, more frantic and insistent and Chloe surged up to meet him, every stroke of his tongue against hers felt like a fire coursing through her veins and she could taste champagne and strawberries and it just made her want more. His fingers tightened on her hips, pulling her closer to him and sliding his knee between her legs and Chloe tore her lips from his unable to contain her moan as his fingers slid from her hips and across her stomach, his fingertips sliding under the edge of her panties, pulling them down to mid thigh.

Her hands found his belt and unbuckling it and then popped the button on his pants, dipping her hand into his boxers and shoving both pants and underwear down in one smooth motion and there was a slightly awkward shuffle as they both divested themselves completely of the rest of their clothes and then it was nothing but skin on skin. They were sweat soaked and slick, as they slid against each other and that would have been enough for Chloe, should have been enough for her but then Neal reached down and slipped two fingers inside of her and that was so much better.

She arched up into him with shameless abandon as he slid his fingers in and out a few times and then his fingers were gone and Chloe looked up at him, a sort of half glare, half pout on her face and Neal kissed her softly and slid completely inside of her and the pout was gone.

Neal started off slowly, forcing himself to hold back, Chloe's words echoing in his head, that they had the whole weekend and he probably could have kept up that pace if she hadn't looked up at him through her eyelashes. "Neal, I need…" she was begging him now and his grip tightened on her waist.

"What?" He asked breathlessly.

"Faster." Chloe pleaded and that was all he needed to let go completely. Chloe met him thrust for thrust, urging him to go faster and deeper and he did whatever she asked, he always did whatever she asked and then she wasn't asking for anything anymore, couldn't ask for anything, her breath coming so fast that she barely managed a weak, "Neal," and he couldn't hold back any longer, thrusting into her one last time and it was just enough to push the both of them over the edge and Neal didn't worry about the fall because he knew Chloe would catch him.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

They'd lain intertwined for a while, letting their breathing even out, and Neal was content to lay there like that forever, but Chloe shivered and Neal realized that all of the bedding was still in the bathtub. He kissed her temple softly but she barely stirred so he ran to the bathroom, grabbed one of the blankets and draped it over her, only to find that she was fast asleep.

He looked over at the bedside clock and smiled, grabbing his clothes and quickly pulling them on before giving Chloe one last kiss and heading out the door.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"That was the last time I saw her." Neal said.

"Why did you leave?" Peter frowned at him.

"I had an errand to run. I was gone maybe two hours. When I got back to the room her stuff was gone and so was she. I went to her apartment and it had been ransacked. I ran into Jimmy, her ex, and he told me that she'd been arrested by the DDS but I couldn't find any trace of her, I called in all my favors and then well, you know the rest."

Peter nodded. "And then five years go by and she suddenly shows up at Junes."

"And disappears." Neal sighed.

"And you think she's in trouble?" Peter asked and Neal nodded. "Why? What happened last night to make you think that she was in trouble? You skipped dinner and I'm assuming that whole scene of her answering your door in her underwear was an attempt to keep me from seeing something. What aren't you telling me?"

Neal hesitated for only a second. He didn't know what kind of trouble Chloe was in but he knew that he and Peter could help and he also knew from personal experience that keeping things from Peter never ended well. "The guy she was with last night was Oliver Queen."

"The head of Queen Industries?" Peter said, instantly recognizing the name.

Neal nodded. "They got into a fight on the balcony. She said something about him going off script, that they had a strict timeline and then he left." Peter nodded, not saying anything, letting Neal fill in the silence for him. "About thirty minutes later a guy came in, whispered something furiously in her ear and then he left and she followed him."

"And you followed the both of them." Peter said and Neal nodded.

"They were in the alley behind Junes and Oliver had been shot." Peter sat up straighter at his. "It wasn't too serious, a through and through, no major arteries or organs had been hit but he was still losing a lot of blood. I offered to call an ambulance and they freaked out, said they couldn't go to the hospital so I called Moz and brought them up to my room. Moz cleaned Oliver up and then you showed up and I had to run out to meet you on the stairs and when I got back she was gone."

"You hid this from me." Peter said slowly. "A man was shot and you didn't tell me."

"I know." Neal said. "I know how bad this looks but…it was Chloe."

Peter looked up at Neal ready to give him a lecture about police procedure and proper protocol but he didn't. He just shook his head. "You always did lose all common sense when it came to her."

"Yeah well, it's not like it did any good." Neal said. "She's gone again and we're right back where we were four years ago."

"No we're not." Peter smiled slowly. "There's something different this time."

"Yeah, what's that?" Neal leaned against the table.

"This time I saw her face." Peter said.

"That makes a difference?" Neal asked him.

"It makes all the difference in the world. Now she's real to me, she exists," Peter said. "Hell for a while there I was sure you'd made her up. We'll run her again, maybe this time something will come up."

"She's not in the system." Neal reminded him.

"She wasn't in the system when I ran her four years ago." Peter walked over to the computer.

"And if I know Chloe she's just gotten better at hiding since then." Neal said then something clicked in his head, something Moz said to him. "She got married." Neal sat up straighter. "She got married and her husband died."

"If she got married, there's a marriage certificate somewhere." Peter got up and opened the door then stopped. "She's young for a widow." He said and Neal was once again hit with a pang of regret about not being there for her.

"Too young." Neal agreed with him.

"Diana!" Peter called, motioning for her to come up to his office. She set down her work and climbed up the steps to Peter's office.

"Yeah boss?" She looked at Peter then Neal.

"I need you to do me a favor, off the record, no case file." Peter said and Diana nodded. "I need you to pull all the marriage certificates from Smallville, Kansas for the past five years and looking for a Chloe Sullivan and if you can't find that I want you to take pull all the death certificates and cross reference those names with the grooms."

"Yeah ok." Diana looked over at Neal one last time before walking away.

"Grab your coat." Peter said and Neal stood up, slipping his coat on.

"Where are we going?" Neal asked confused, following Peter out of the building.

"To talk to Oliver Queen." Peter smiled and Neal smiled back.

"Hey, Peter." Neal called when they got to the car. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet." Peter said moving to get in the car but Neal didn't so he stopped.

"I know you could get into a lot of trouble for doing this for me. So thanks." Neal said sincerely.

"I made you a promise four years ago that if this girl did in fact exist I would find her. I'm just following through on that promise." Peter reminded him then climbed in the car.


	3. Chapter 3

Peter looked up at the Queen Industries tower and took a deep breath putting himself in the right mindset. When he was ready he buttoned up his jacket and headed into the lobby. Out of the corner of his eye saw Neal walk in beside him and take off his hat so he stopped. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going?"

"To talk to Oliver Queen." Neal said as if that were the most obvious thing in the world.

"No. No way. You're not going up there," Peter smiled.

"What? Why not?" Neal said.

"We don't know how much he knows about me," Peter said. "And as much as you pride yourself on being forgettable, the guy almost bleed out in your kitchen last night, that tends to leave a lasting impression on a person. I just think I might be able to get more out of him on my own."

"But—"

"Tell me you won't go off script," Peter said. "Look me in the eyes and tell me that when you get up there and you see him you'll be able to keep your cool, knowing that he knows where she is." Neal sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "That's what I thought. Stay right here."

Peter walked up to the reception desk and offered the girl manning the phones a soft smile. She smiled back but it was obvious her attention was directed at Neal who was busy pacing the lobby floor behind him. Peter just snorted and shook his head. "Hi."

"Hi," she looked at him as if just noticing he was standing there. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, Peter Burke to see Oliver Queen please."

"Oh, uh," the woman looked down at her computer screen typing rapidly. "I don't have you in his book. I'm afraid if you don't have an appointment I can't let you up."

"I'm sorry, maybe you were looking under the wrong name," Peter patted his pockets a few times before pulling out his badge. He flipped it open turned it so that she could see it. "Special Agent Peter Burke, with the FBI, here to see Oliver Queen."

"Yes, of course," she fumbled to take off her head set and smooth out her skirt. "Right this way please," she smiled at him and walked him over to the elevator banks. She unclipped the ID badge that was hanging from the bottom of her jacket and waved it at the sensor before pushing the elevator call button, the door opened immediately. "He's on the top floor, I'll call up, let them know your coming."

"Thank you," Peter smiled at her then looked over her shoulder at Neal and mouthed the word, "Stay."

Neal rolled his eyes but nodded. "Stay," he mumbled under his breath, like he was a dog or something. He knew that Peter was right, he knew that whenever Chloe was involved he had a hard time playing it cool.

He smiled at the receptionist as she made her way back behind her desk. She grabbed the phone and pushed a button, talking rapidly into the receiver, her eyes wide before hanging up. Neal collapsed in one of the overstuffed chairs scattered around the lobby and slid down in the seat to stare up at the ceiling. He twirled his hat in his fingers and slid it onto his head, then pulled it down over his eyes. He hated waiting.

_Moz looked up as Neal slipped back into his room. "God, I could not get rid of him. Get a few drinks in the guy and all of a sudden he wants to talk about anything and everything under the sun." He stopped when he realized he was talking to a basically empty room. He peaked around the corner then hurried down the back hall checking the bathroom and the closet. "Where is she?" he asked storming back in the room. _

"_She left," Moz said quietly. _

"_What do you mean she left?" Neal snapped. _

"_She left Neal, she climbed down the back way." _

"_And you just let her?" Neal practically screamed. _

"_What was I supposed to do, hold her hostage? Lock her in the bathroom?" Moz asked him harshly. _

"_No," Neal sighed, collapsing into the chair at the kitchen table. "Of course not, I'm sorry. It's not your fault." Neal ran a hand through his hair. "It was Peter wasn't it?" _

"_What do you think?" Moz snorted. "Can you blame her for being a bit hesitant? The last thing she knew the Suit was public enemy number one." _

"_If she would have just given me a second to explain instead of running off, again…" Neal groaned. _

"_Look, about the running off thing," Moz said hesitantly. "She said something, something strange about what happened the last time she left." Neal looked over at him impatiently. "She might have implied that Kate had something to do with her disappearance." _

"_Kate?" Neal sat up straighter. "Are you sure?" _

"_She sai,d and I quote, _'She turned me in, she handed me over to them and Neal…'" _Moz trailed off. _

"_Neal what?" Neal asked him._

"_I don't know, she didn't finish the thought, she just freaked and then left as fast as her four inch heels could carry her." Moz shrugged. _

"_Kate turned her in? Turned her into who? The DDS?" Neal asked. _

"_Your guess is as good as mine. But the Suit swears she was never in DDS custody." _

"_If Kate was behind her disappearing act five years ago," Moz said. _

"_I know, it means everything we thought we knew is wrong." Neal sighed in frustration. _

He still couldn't really wrap his head around what Moz told him. It was Kate. Kate was the reason that Chloe left, Kate had done something and for whatever reason, it seemed like Chloe believed that Neal was in on it. That hurt. It hurt more than thinking that she just left, it hurt more than living without her for the past five years. The fact that she could think, for even one second, that Neal would do anything to hurt her, hurt him more than he thought possible.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a soft cough coming from beside him and he lifted his hat slightly to see the receptionist standing over him. "Hello," Neal said cautiously, sitting up straight in the chair.

"Is Mr. Queen in trouble?"she asked him nervously.

"I'm sorry?" Neal frowned at her.

"The man that you came in with. He's with the FBI and he's here to see Mr. Queen. Is Mr. Queen in trouble?" Neal opened his mouth but the girl just barreled on, sitting down across from him, perching herself on the edge of the table. "Because he's a really great guy, and I don't just mean that because he's rich and owns the company but because he remembers my name. I've only worked here for a year and in that time he's been to New York maybe twice but he remembers my name and that my sister just had a baby and when he asks me how I am every morning he really wants to know so whatever you think it is that he did, I'm sure he didn't, he couldn't—"

"He's not in any trouble, Sarah," Neal read her name off the ID badge and reached over, placing a hand on her knee to calm her down. "We actually just need his help for a case we're working on."

"Oh," the woman visibly deflated as she let out a breath. "That's good to know. I'm going for a coffee run, can I get you anything while you wait?" she asked, batting her eyelashes at him. Apparently now that her boss was no longer in trouble, Neal was free game. He smiled at her.

"You know I could go for a cappuccino thank you," Neal reached in his pocket for his wallet and she smiled again.

"Don't worry about it, it's on me," she stood and walked to the door. He watched her step out onto the streets of New York city and then turn. He waited until she was out of sight before looking down at the ID card he now held in his hand and then over at the bank of elevators.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

When the doors opened and Peter found himself face to face with Oliver Queen, he was surprised, and it showed, '_Point one for Oliver Queen' _he thought. "Agent Burke?" Oliver took a step forward with his hand held out and the smile that Peter was pretty sure he reserved for journalists and magazine covers. "Oliver Queen."

"_Special_ Agent Burke." Peter said as Oliver led him past a slightly nervous yet still smiling receptionist.

"Right, I'm sorry, my mistake." Oliver said with a sort of smirk and Peter practically cursed himself because he'd just handed Oliver Queen point two. Neal would be rolling his eyes in disgust right about now.

"Karen, hold all my calls and I need to see the patent lawyers this afternoon. Tomorrow is too late, I need those papers filed before five or PolyTech is going to kill us next quarter."

"Yes Mr. Queen." Karen nodded and grabbed for her phone.

Oliver led Peter into the office and closed the door behind him. "It's small." Peter said before he could stop himself, taking in the room that was only about twice the size of his own office.

"I'm sorry?" Oliver frowned at him confused.

"Your office. It's small." Peter explained. "Smaller than I would have thought."

"I'm only in New York a few times a year. It seems wasteful to maintain a full corner office that will just sit vacant 80% of the time." Oliver shrugged.

"That makes sense." Peter nodded.

"Can I get you something to drink? Coffee, water?"

"No I'm fine thank you." Peter shook his head and Oliver motioned for him to take a seat in front of the desk as he sat down behind it.

"So _Special_ Agent Burke, what can I do for you?" Oliver leaned back slightly.

"You were at the charity dinner held at June Bishop's house last night correct?"

"Yes I was," Oliver nodded.

"I was at that dinner." Peter said.

"Really?" Oliver raised his eyebrows but he wasn't really pulling off surprise very well.

"I don't recall seeing you there." Peter said.

"It was a big party." Oliver reminded him. "I'm sorry, I'm not really seeing where the FBI comes into all of this. Was my…is there a problem with my donation?"

"No, I'm sure everything's fine there," Peter shook his head. "I'm more interested in the woman you were at the party with."

"The…" Oliver trailed off as comprehension of sorts dawned on his face. He laughed and rubbed a hand roughly over the back of his neck before looking up at Peter. "Ok, this is slightly embarrassing." Oliver leaned forward in his seat. "Look, I assure you that everything was legal and above board. And it's not what you think. I mean I can get my own dates but I'm only in town for a while and bringing a girl to one of June's charity dinner's is sort of a big thing and I'm really not looking for something serious right now so…" Peter looked at him confused. "I just needed an escort."

Peter smiled, "Are you suggesting to me that the girl you were with last night, was an escort?"

"Yes. An escort, and only an escort. It wasn't, I didn't…I just needed a date, that's it." Oliver said.

Peter nodded. "You wouldn't happen to have the number for that agency would you?"

"Yeah, I've got it…I've got it right here." Oliver's smile faltered for a second and Peter smiled wider. _Point one for Peter Burke._ "It's uh, it's in my contact list. Somewhere," he said as scrolled through something that Peter was positive was _not_ a contact list on his computer. The way Oliver's smile faded completely Peter thought he might even deserve two points, making them even. Oliver gritted his teeth. "Just a second," he told Peter.

"_I'm doing this as fast as I can Arrow, stop grinding your teeth." _Victor said in his ear. _"Here, give him this number."_

"Here it is," Oliver smiled. "212-574-2893. J.L.A. Premier Services."

"Thanks," Peter nodded as he wrote the number down. "Would you mind if I…" he pulled out his phone and waved it at Oliver, wondering just how far he could push this.

"Go right ahead," Oliver leaned back in his seat, a little too comfortable for Peter's liking. "Her name was Lola."

Peter paused as he stood up. "Lola?" he asked. "Let me guess, she was a show girl?"

Oliver smiled bigger and Peter cursed under his breath. He wasn't sure what just happened here but he was sure that Oliver just jumped back in the lead.

"_Chloe is so going to kill you." Victor laughed. _

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Victor typed furiously on the keyboard as he called up Courtney's comm's. He'd said they should have a plan in place for if and when the FBI came down on them and Oliver brushed his concerns off, said that he could just wing it. Oliver winging it usually meant that he got to make something up off the top of his head and then Victor had to scramble to make miracles happen. _"Hey Vic, did you guys get Bart is he—"_

"No time," Victor said, feeling only slightly bad for cutting Courtney off, he knew the girl was just worried. "I am about to patch a call through to your cell phone and I need you to repeat everything I tell you to ok?"

"_Yeah, sure_," Courtney agreed.

"Patching it through to you now."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The phone rang the for fourth time and Peter looked over at Oliver. If they were playing a game of chicken, it didn't look like Oliver was going to move first. _"J.L.A. Premier Service. How can I help you?" _A perky sounding woman answered the phone and Peter faltered for a second.

"Yes, sorry I was calling to enquire about one of your girls." Peter said.

"_Of course sir. Our rates are very competitive and our girls are all of the highest caliber. We do extensive background checks and random drug testing. I do want to point out before we go any further that we offer escort services only, for special events or parties, we do not condone nor do we charge for any sort of sexual activity. Now if you could tell me the nature of your event I could help select the proper girl for you." _

"I don't have an event." Peter said. "I'm looking for information on one girl in particular. Lola."

"_Ah, one of our favorites." _The girl said. "_Just let me check her schedule." _Peter turned around and looked at Oliver who was just looking at him. "_I'm sorry sir it looks like Lola left this morning for an extended booking. She is currently out of the country for the next month." _

"Is she?" Peter shook his head. "Could you tell me where specifically?"

"_I'm sorry sir that information is confidential." _The woman said. "_But if you would like to check our website, , I'm sure we've got another girl who is just as good as Lola." _

"I might just do that. Thank you for your time." Peter hung up the phone and turned back to Oliver walking to the desk. "She's out of the country."

"Ah, that's unfortunate."

"It is." Peter nodded.

"She didn't do something did she? Something illegal?" Oliver's worried face was better than his surprised face but not by much.

"No, nothing like that." Peter said. "Actually we have a very credible tip that she might be in some danger. Serious danger."

"Huh." Oliver stood up. "Well I wish I could help you more." He led Peter to the door and to the elevator. "For what it's worth, she seemed like a very capable woman. I'm sure whatever danger you think she's in, she can handle it on her own."

"Just because someone can handle something alone, doesn't mean they should have to." Peter hit the elevator call button. He was already behind right now in points and he was getting a little desperate. "Look, Mr. Queen, Lola…is someone very important to a very close friend of mine. I made him a promise four years ago that I would find her and I never break my promises."

"Look, if there's one thing I know about...Lola, it's that you're not gonna find her unless she wants you to and it looks to me like she doesn't want you to." Oliver shrugged. "Tell your friend I'm sorry."

The elevator dinged and Peter watched as Karen handed Oliver some files. "Oh, Karen did your mom get the flowers I sent?"

"She did. They were beautiful," Karen smiled. "And can I thank you again for the Doctor you called in, he's been a godsend. I haven't received a bill yet though."

"It's been taken care of, don't worry about it," Oliver brushed her off.

"Mr. Queen, I can't let you—"

"It's been taken care of." Oliver said with a smile as Peter pushed the button for the lobby, his tone leaving no room for discussion.

"Of course sir, thank you sir," Karen ducked her head and as much as Peter wanted to hate him, he begrudgingly had to admit that Oliver Queen seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Your friend is on his way down." Sarah told Neal, hanging up her phone.

"Thanks." Neal stood up and smiled as he walked over to the elevators. The doors opened up and Neal saw Peter inside pacing. Neal's face fell. "It didn't go well did it?"

"He is good." Peter shook his head. "He didn't let anything slip. Unless…" Peter looked over at Neal.

"Unless what?" Neal asked hopefully.

"Unless there's a chance that Chloe changed her name to Lola and joined an elite New York escort service?" Peter asked and Neal shook his head slowly, very confused. "Right, we couldn't get that lucky could we? He knows _something_, but he's not talking. Let's get back to the office, I want to see if Diana's found anything on her end and check out a website."

"Who is Lola?" Neal asked as they walked toward the doors.

"I'll explain later." Peter smiled. "Did you go out for coffee?"

"No, Sarah did," Neal turned and waved at the receptionist. "Oh speaking of, hold on just a second." Peter watched as Neal hurried back to the reception desk and held out what looked like an ID card to the girl. He heard Neal say, "I think you dropped this."

Sarah gushed her thanks and Neal tipped his hat before heading back to Peter. "You lifted her badge." Neal nodded. "You could have come up at any point."

Neal shrugged and drank the last of his coffee. "I figured you could handle it." Peter smiled. "Guess I was wrong." Peter glared at him as he stopped at the trashcan by the door only to freeze.

"What?" Peter frowned.

"She was here," Neal said slowly.

"What makes you so sure?" Peter asked.

"Trash is public property right?" Neal asked and Peter nodded. Neal pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket then reached into the trash can and grabbed an empty coffee cup. "Carmel latte, double shot, no foam." He motioned to the marks on the side of the cup. "This is hers."

Peter smiled and grabbed an evidence bag out of his pocket for Neal to drop the cup in. "I'll run the prints as soon as we get back to the office."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oliver walked back to his desk and sighed, rubbing his neck. "Hey Vic. What is it gonna take for you not to tell Chloe about the whole Lola thing?"

"_Can't talk right now, I'm too busy making a website for an imaginary escort agency_." Victor told him.

"Why are you making a website?" Oliver frowned.

"_Because someone decided to ad-lib." _Victor grumbled.

"_I'm sorry,"_ Courtney's voice came over the comms. _"It just felt like something my character would say." _

"_Anyway, now I have to make a fake website that looks real and I still haven't made it through all the schematics on the security system for the museum." _Victor told him._ "Plus no way am I passing up the opportunity to see the look on her face when I tell her all about her stint as an escort named Lola." _

"I hate you." Oliver sighed and pulled the earpiece out of his ear.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Peter passed the cup off to Jones when they got back to the office, asking him to rush it through. "Sure, what case number should I use?"

Peter stopped for a second, "Neal's."

Jones looked at him and then at Neal and then at the cup. "You want me to use Neal's case number?"

"Yeah." Peter nodded, it seemed appropriate.

"Sure thing." Jones said, not questioning it further.

"Hey, boss, I think I'm gonna have something for you in a sec." Diana told him, holding her hand over the phone's speaker.

"Come on up when you're finished." Peter said and he and Neal climbed the steps to his office and sat down behind his computer. He opened up a new window and typed in the address for the website the woman gave him. He cursed under his breath when a website for what looked like a very classy escort agency immediately pulled up on his screen. "Shit, he's really good." Peter said and Neal walked around the desk.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" he asked. "Or maybe something you don't want me to tell Elizabeth?"

Peter glared at Neal over his shoulder. "When I asked Oliver about the girl he was with at June's party, he said she was an escort name Lola. It seemed like the whole story was totally off the cuff but then he gave me this phone number to an actual agency and now this." Peter motioned to the website. Peter clicked on the "Meet Our Girls" link and scrolled down the page until he came across the name Lola. There was a picture of a blonde girl, short hair, big smile.

"It even looks like her," Neal whispered. "He _is_ good." Neal stood up and shook his head.

"So what now?" Peter leaned back in his chair.

"Jimmy Olsen." Diana said from the doorway.

"Who's that?"

"Did you say Jimmy Olsen?" Neal perked up.

Diana nodded. "Henry James Olsen filed for a marriage license, no name listed under spouse, but four months later there was a death certificate filed for him."

"She married Jimmy Olsen." Neal collapsed into the chair. "Jimmy Olsen, is dead."

"I take it you know who that is?" Peter asked.

"Chloe's ex."

"The one before you." Peter asked and Neal wanted to say that Jimmy wasn't before him because he never really had her, except he did so he just nodded. "Huh."

"She married Jimmy Olsen." Neal said to himself. It was going to take a while to get used to that.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oliver opened the door and stepped into the apartment after a particularly long day at the office. Despite the reason they were in New York, Oliver still had a company to run. "Lola?" Chloe asked, meeting him at the door, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyebrows raised. "I'm an escort named Lola now?"

"Funny story-" Oliver offered.

"I don't care," Chloe brushed him off. "Do you think he bought it?"

"No." Oliver shook his head. "I think this guy wants to find you and he seems like the type of guy not to give up."

"He is," Chloe groaned, remembering how unrelenting he was in his pursuit of Neal and how hard it was for Chloe to stay one step ahead of him. "I can't worry about Peter Burke right now I just can't. I still have no idea what to do about Friday night. Bart is counting on me and I'm starting to worry that I'm going to let him down."

"Hey," Oliver grabbed her shoulders. "Take a deep breath. You're not alone here ok. Bart is counting on all of us and he's never let us down so no way are we gonna let him down."

"Ok. Your right, we can do this. I just have to focus." Chloe nodded.

Just then alarms rang out all through apartment. "What the hell?" Oliver flinched and looked around. "Are we under siege."

"No." Chloe groaned and walked over to her computers as Victor pulled up her system and set off the alarm. "That's an alarm I set up, someone ran my prints through the system."

"You're not in the system." Oliver said. "Right?"

"I'm not, but my prints are." Chloe said. "In quite a few places," she bit her lip. "How bad is it?"

"Red flags are popping up all over the place, damn it. I can't," he turned around annoyed. "I can't do anything, I can't stop it."

"This is exactly what I needed right now," Chloe hung her head and groaned. "Damn it Neal, what the hell are you doing?" she mumbled to herself before pushing off the edge of the desk and taking a deep breath.

She turned around and walked into the bedroom. Victor, AC, and Oliver looked at each other confused. She came out five minutes later wearing Oliver's hoodie, her bag slung over one shoulder and his long bow over the other. "I'll call you when I get settled."

"What?" Oliver asked surprised following her to the door.

"He's not gonna give up. He knows now that I have some sort of connection to you. It's not going to take him too long to start looking into your local real estate holdings, trace this place back to you and therefore straight to me." Chloe explained. "Look, I'm gonna try and get him to back off but just in case, I'll set up a secondary base camp. Better safe than sorry." Chloe reached up on her tip-toes and kissed Oliver's cheek. "I'll call you." She said pulling the hood up over her head and walking out the door.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal managed to avoid June as he made his way up the stairs to his room. He knew that she was still waiting for their talk about Chloe and he just couldn't do it, not tonight. Chloe had married Jimmy Olsen. He still couldn't wrap his head around the whole thing. Especially considering the last time he'd seen her she had most definitely been completely over him. And yet she'd married him, and then he'd died.

Peter had looked into and found a very sparse police report. They managed to figure out that he'd been killed by someone named Davis Bloom. Bloom had been a pretty notorious serial killer back in Metropolis for a while but there was speculation that his murder of Jimmy had been motivated by jealousy. Neal assumed that meant it was over Chloe and that had to have killed her. Even if she'd been over Jimmy, she still cared about him, Neal knew that, that was just the type of person she was. He cursed himself again for not being there to help her through this.

Neal closed the door behind him and sighed loosening his tie when an arrow whizzed past his face, close enough to almost burn him with its sheer velocity and embedded in the wall behind him. He turned quickly to the balcony where Chloe was staring at him with murderous intent, a hood pulled up over her head, a long bow in her arms. Another arrow was already perched and loaded and aimed at him. "Chloe?" He took a step forward and her fingers twitched.

"I won't miss next time," she warned him. "And trust me when I say I had a really good teacher."

"What's going on?" Neal asked.

"You ran my prints?"

"I didn't." He shook his head, not technically lying. "I had _Peter_ run your prints."

"It flew up red flags everywhere Neal, the FBI, CIA, NSA, Interpol-you didn't miss a rock."

"You crawled out didn't you?" he said a little more bitter than he intended.

"To tell you to back off." Chloe lowered the bow only slightly. "Look I can't do this right now. You and your new best friend Peter Burke want to hunt me down that's fine. I'll be the Moriarty to your Holmes. Next week. I cannot have the FBI on my ass this week Neal."

"I know you're in trouble Nicole." Neal said. "Let me help you."

"I don't want your help Neal, I want you to back off. Can you do that for me? Please." Chloe's shoulders collapsed and she looked tired, exhausted actually. "You owe me that much Neal."

"Is that what you really want?" Neal whispered.

Chloe nodded. "That's what I want."

"Ok, fine," he held up his hands in surrender.

"Thank You." Chloe sighed and turned to leave.

"You're in over your head." Neal called out to her and she froze. "Whatever's going on, whatever you're trying to do, you're in over your head. I can tell, I could always tell. You may not want my help Chlo, but if you need it, you know where to find me."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Wow." Elizabeth said as Peter grabbed her plate and headed to the kitchen. "Chloe's back. How's Neal doing?"

"Not good." Peter shook his head. "He's convinced himself that she's in trouble and needs his help."

"Yeah, that's the same thing he said last time." Elizabeth leaned back in her chair and grabbed her wine glass. "What do you think?"

"I don't know." Peter sat back down. "I think he really believes it, I think there might even be some merit to his theory but I also think that she doesn't want any help and until she does, there's nothing we can do for her."

"So how is she connected to Oliver Queen?" Elizabeth asked.

"No clue but I know that she is." Peter grabbed his wine glass and took a sip. "I've got Jones tracking down any real estate he might own locally, but that could take some time. If he's hiding her it's not gonna be under his name."

Elizabeth opened her mouth to say something when the doorbell rang. "Are you expecting someone?" she asked and Neal nodded, picking up the rest of the food and bringing it to the kitchen as Elizabeth went to the door.

"Neal?"she frowned when she saw him on the stoop. "Hey is everything ok?" He looked wrecked and Elizabeth frowned, her heart breaking for him.

"Neal," Peter asked from over her shoulder. "You wanna come in?"

"No. I need you to call of the search." Neal said.

"I don't understand," Peter sat down. "Do you know how many hits those prints got? We're close Neal I can feel it."

"She doesn't want to be found." Neal shook his head. "When I started this search, I thought she was in trouble, I thought she needed me. But she doesn't want me, she doesn't want my help and she doesn't want me to find her so…that's that."

"Are you sure?" Elizabeth reached for his arm. "I know it seems sometimes like—"

"No I'm sure. She showed up at June's again, she made it very clear that she wanted me to leave her alone so that's what I'm going to do." Neal looked over at Peter. "You can tell Jones to call off the search, pull the prints from the system. It's over." Neal turned and walked down the steps.

"Neal," Peter called after him. "Neal!" Peter walked down the steps and looked down the street after him but he didn't stop, he didn't turn.

"Is he ok?" Elizabeth asked.

"No." Peter shook his head and turned to his wife, offering her a sad smile. "No, I don't think he is." He squeezed her shoulder then walked back into the kitchen and Elizabeth pulled out her phone. She loved her husband she really did but sometimes you just needed to handle something, woman to woman.

"Mozzie, I need a favor."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe pulled the door to her hotel room open when she heard the knocking without even looking up from the device in her hands, "That was quick, I called you like five minutes ago. So I had an idea. Have you ever seen the Great Escape?"

"Yes I have." Elizabeth smiled at Chloe hesitantly from the hallway. "It's a great movie. Steve McQueen _and_ James Garner, how can you go wrong?"

"I—"Chloe looked up and frowned at the semi-familiar voice. She'd been expecting Victor so to say she was surprised was an understatement. "Hello." She said cautiously.

"Hi. I'm not sure if you remember me from last night. I'm—"

"Elizabeth Burke," Chloe whispered. "Yeah I know who you are."

"Can I come in?" Elizabeth asked, not bothering to wait for an answer before pushing her way into the hotel room.

"How did you find me?" Chloe stuttered. "Mozzie-"

"Don't worry, he didn't give you up." Elizabeth took her jacket off and draped it over the side of the couch. "No matter how much I begged. There's not that many people who can instill that kind of loyalty in him."

"When Neal went to jail, I was the only one he had and I took that responsibility seriously. I think that earns me some loyalty." Chloe said stiffly.

"Of course," Elizabeth nodded. "You're right."

"So if Mozzie didn't tell you, then how did you find me?"

"Please." Elizabeth scoffed. "I've heard the story of how you guys met a hundred times. It didn't take too long to call a few hotels, look for a reservation under the name Nicole Bonnet." Elizabeth sat down on the couch and looked up at Chloe knowingly.

"I only used that name because I figured he'd assume I wouldn't." Chloe felt the need to defend herself.

"Of course," Elizabeth nodded. "That makes perfect sense."

"I'm sorry, what are you doing here?" Chloe asked her.

"I came to talk to you. About Neal." Elizabeth clarified.

"Yeah, I figured you didn't come here to recruit me to your book club," Chloe snorted. "What makes you think _I_ want to talk to _you_ about Neal?"

"If you don't, I'll just tell my husband where to find you," Elizabeth shrugged. "I know you'd probably be long gone before he could get to you, but the hassle of having to move and come up with another alias."

Chloe stared at the other woman before sighing, "Can I get you some coffee?"

"That would be lovely," Elizabeth leaned back on the couch as Chloe went off to start a pot of coffee. Neither of them spoke as the coffee dripped slowly into the carafe and Chloe knew how ridiculous this whole thing was. Elizabeth freakin' Burke was sitting on the couch in her hotel room. She should be running, she should have slammed the door in her face, packed her stuff and climbed out the fire escape but she didn't and she really had no idea why.

"Cream or sugar?" Chloe asked, grabbing two of the hotel coffee cups.

"No, black is fine, thank you." Elizabeth smiled at her and Chloe poured two cups, bringing them over to the couch and setting them on the coffee table. Elizabeth grabbed her cup and took a sip as Chloe did the same. And still neither of them said anything.

"You wanted to talk?" Chloe eventually prompted her when the silence stretched out from uneasy to awkward.

"Yes," Elizabeth set her coffee cup down. "I guess, I just don't really understand what's happening here."

"I'm not quite sure I understand either," Chloe said cautiously. "But you're the one who showed up on my doorstep so…"

Elizabeth smiled at her softly, "No, I didn't mean _here_ here, I mean in general. I don't understand what's going on, with you and Neal."

"There is nothing going on with me and Neal," Chloe said stiffly.

"Oh honey," Elizabeth leaned over and patted Chloe's knee with sympathy. "I'm sure you're a better liar than that."

"Look, Mrs. Burke—"

"Call me Elizabeth," she smiled.

"Elizabeth," Chloe said through partly gritted teeth. "If there was something going on between me and Neal I don't know how it would be any of your business."

"It's hurting Neal. So I'm making it my business." Elizabeth said, her tone a bit harder now.

"Hurting _Neal_?" Chloe scoffed as if that were the funniest thing she'd ever heard. "I hate to sound insensitive here Elizabeth but I could honestly care less whether or not I'm hurting Neal."

Elizabeth softened then and shook her head, "Now I _know_ you're a better liar than that."

"Why are you here?" Chloe asked a bit more harshly than she intended, moving away from Elizabeth before she could pat her knee again.

"Neal is my friend and—"

"He's your friend?" Chloe stood up suddenly angry. "Neal Caffery is many things, he's a thief and a conman and a forger but I learned a long time ago that he was no one's friend."

"The Neal I know now isn't like that. The Neal I know is kind and generous and willing to do anything help someone he cares about." Elizabeth said confused. "And he cares about you. No matter how hard you try to deny it, he cares about you and he wants to help you and—"

"He works for the FBI," Chloe said. "I spent years making sure that your husband didn't get anywhere near him and now they're partners and I don't know what to think about that." She stood up and grabbed Elizabeth's now empty coffee mug and turned toward the kitchenette.

"Ok," Elizabeth took a deep breath. "I can see, from your perspective, where that might make the situation a bit confusing." Chloe nodded and Elizabeth frowned. "But, he did it for you."

Chloe stopped and turned around. "What?" Elizabeth looked at her confused. "What do you mean he did it for me?"

"It was a part of the deal he made with Peter after he broke out of jail." Elizabeth said slowly.

"He broke out of jail?" Chloe sat back down. "But I thought, I mean he said…" Chloe paused remembering him at June's party the other night. _"I got out. Time off for good behavior." _Last she checked breaking out of jail was basically the opposite of good behavior. "That doesn't sound like Neal. Why would he do that? Why would he break out of jail?"

Elizabeth smiled then. "For you of course."

Chloe shook her head. "For me? What do I have to do with it?"

"Everything." Elizabeth chuckled then shook her head. "It can't be that much of a surprise that he broke out of jail for you, hell he went to jail for you."

"What?" Chloe blinked at her stupidly.

"You-" Elizabeth stopped at the look on her face. "You really don't know?"

"H-h-he went to jail because he cashed in his last bond, even after I told him that it would lead Peter straight to him, even after I _told_ him that Peter would be watching for that thing like a hawk, but he didn't listen to me, sometimes he doesn't think." Chloe shook her head.

"He cashed the bond in on purpose," Elizabeth said slowly. "He cashed it in because he knew Peter would be watching for it, he wanted Peter to find him."

"No, that doesn't—"

"Look my husband is great at his job. If there was anyone in the FBI who was going to catch Neal, it would have been Peter but he didn't. Neal called Peter, said he wanted to turn himself in, said he wanted to make a deal."

"A deal?" Chloe asked, her throat suddenly dry.

"He said that someone very important to him had gone missing, that he'd done everything he could do to find her, he'd called in all his favors, followed every lead and came up empty handed every time. He told Peter that he would plead guilty to the bond forgeries if Peter used his connections to keep looking for her. To keep looking for you."

"He turned himself in for me?" Chloe frowned. "But that doesn't make any sense."

"It always bothered Peter because Neal came through on his part of the deal but Peter could never find you. He tried for four years but you were gone." Elizabeth said. "And then Kate came back and told Neal that she'd found you, that you were in trouble and that he was the only one who could save you. So he broke out."

"Wait, Kate did what?" Chloe shook her head, none of this made any sense.

"She visited Neal in prison. She told him that she'd found the people who had you and that if he gave them the music box they would let you go."

"So he broke out," Chloe said. "He broke out to get the music box, so that he could save me?" she frowned. "If he was trying to find me then that means the he didn't know where I was. Which means that Kate lied."

Elizabeth snorted. "Is that really that surprising to you?"

"No," Chloe shook her head. "I didn't want to believe her but she had…there's no way she could have had that if Neal hadn't given it to her, she wouldn't have even known about it, how did she know about it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Elizabeth said slowly.

"No, you don't." Chloe said but she didn't bother to elaborate. "You tracked me down, you came out here in the middle of the night, I'm pretty sure you didn't tell your husband where you were going, and you did all that for Neal."

"Yes."

"You trust him that much?" Chloe asked. "You trust him in your home? You trust him with your life and your husbands life?"

"Of course." Elizabeth answered.

Chloe frowned confused, "You didn't even hesitate."

"No." Elizabeth shook her head. "Why do you?"

Chloe opened her mouth and then closed it. Ten minutes ago she would have had an answer to that question, she would have had a really good answer. Ten minutes ago she could have told Elizabeth Burke exactly why she didn't trust Neal. But now, she really didn't know.

"Think about that," Elizabeth stood up and grabbed her jacket and turned to the door. She froze when she saw Chloe's makeshift command center. She had a desk set up in the corner with three computers set up, all running a different program. The wall behind the desk was covered in security schematics, blueprints, and exterior and interior shots of the Met. In the middle of it all was a picture of a young man. He was wearing a red hoodie and his hair was falling just slightly into his eyes. His lips were curved up into a smile like the picture was taken in mid-laugh. It was circled about ten times in thick red lines.

"I think Neal's right. I think you're in trouble. I think you need his help and more importantly, you want his help." Elizabeth said. "But he's done offering, so this time you're going to have to ask."

Chloe didn't say anything as Elizabeth let herself out, she didn't even move, she wasn't sure if she could move. Neal had been trying to find her, all this time. He'd been so desperate in fact he'd made a deal with Peter Burke and gone to jail. And then when he thought she was in trouble he didn't even hesitate to bust out and come after her. That meant something. It had to. It meant more than the evidence that Chloe had suggesting he was the reason she'd gone missing in the first place, more than the belief that he'd betrayed her for that damn music box.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Peter reached out to grab the door to the building but someone beat him to it. He looked up to see Neal there, hat in hand holding the door open for him. "Morning," Peter said, unsure exactly what to say to Neal after the way he showed up at his house the night before.

"Morning," Neal nodded and followed him.

"How are you?" Peter asked.

"I'm ok." Neal said letting out a deep breath.

"Good, ok's not good but it's not bad either so that's good." Peter smiled.

"Peter, Neal," Diana said stepping out of the elevator. "Going on a coffee run, your usual?" They both nodded their thanks at her. "Oh, Peter. There's a woman in your office, she didn't have an appointment but she says it's important. Something about a forged Cellini."

"A forged 16th Century sculpture." Peter turned to Neal as they stepped into the elevator Diana had just vacated. "That sounds right up your alley." Neal didn't say anything.

"She said Cellini?" Neal asked and Peter frowned.

"Yeah," Diana nodded. "Does that mean something to you?"

"In the movie, How to Steal a Million," Neal said slowly, "Audrey Hepburn's character asks Peter O'Toole's character to steal her a forged Cellini." He swallowed hard. "Did she leave a name?"

"Yeah," Diana grabbed her pad and flipped it open. "Nicole Bonnet."

Neal smiled and jumped out of the elevator, shoving the doors to the stairwell open and running up the steps too impatient to wait for the elevator, Peter hot on his heels. He busted into the main floor offices and doubled over trying to catch his breath, to compose himself. He looked up to Peter's office and managed to catch a flash of blonde hair. He took the steps two at a time and yanked the door to Peter's office open. The blonde jumped in surprise and turned around.

"Chloe," he let her name out on a breath and she offered him a small smile. And then Peter came up beside him and her whole body stiffened. "What are you doing here?"

"Elizabeth says I can trust you. She says that she trusts you with her life, that she trusts you with her husband's life," Chloe told him.

"Elizabeth talked to you?" Neal asked, a soft smile on his face.

"She tracked me down. Peter's been looking for me for five years and she tracks me down with four phone calls. She's kind of amazing." Chloe laughed and Peter opened and closed his mouth. He had no idea what to say to that. "The thing is I want to trust you Neal, you have no idea how much I want to trust you."

"I want you to trust me." Neal said.

Chloe took a deep breath and nodded. "Ok then. I need your help."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: The flashback in this chapter is set during Smallville Season 6. In my world, after Chloe disappeared from the caves at the end of Season 5, Lex recovered the key and kept it.

* * *

Chloe took a deep breath and nodded. "Ok then, I need your help."

"Sure, anything," Neal said grabbing her hand.

Chloe offered him a small smile and shook her head, pulling her hand from his, "Don't say that, not yet."

"What's going on?" Peter asked, sliding into his own chair behind his desk.

"Look, your wife was a lovely woman and she made a very convincing argument for why I should trust you-the both of you-and I want to I really do, but this thing-it involves other people, people that I've spent the better part of my life trying to protect."

"Criminals?" Peter asked and Chloe shook her head.

"No, well, not _technically_," she said biting her lip.

"I love it when people aren't '_technically'_ criminals," Peter smirked at her.

"Look we all have our little secrets, but their secrets could get them put them put on a list," Chloe said staring straight at Peter and slowly comprehension started to dawn.

"I don't get it, a list?" Neal looked at Chloe confused. "What kind of a list?"

"If you were to find out their identities, you would be required, by law, to report them," Chloe explained.

"To who?" Peter asked, pretty sure of the answer, but dreading it anyway.

"The VRA," Chloe whispered and Peter hung his head.

"Shit," he leaned back in his seat, rubbing his hand over his eyes.

"Yeah. Look before I tell you anymore I need to be sure you won't report them but I also can't ask you to do that, so I'm giving you the option, before we go any further, to simply back out." Chloe offered. She dug in her bag and pulled out a small black business card with simple white writing on it and slid it across the desk to Peter. "If you decide you want to help, meet me here at 7o'clock. If not – we can just pretend like this never happened, go back to our normal lives."

"I'll have to think about it, I'm sure you understand," Peter said picking up the card and nodding at Chloe.

"_I_ don't understand." Neal stood up angrily, "What is there to think about? Who the hell is the VRA? What list?"

"Do you remember hearing about the Vigilante Registration Act? A law that would require all Vigilante's to register themselves with the Government?" Chloe asked.

"Vaguely," Neal nodded. "It got shot down didn't it?"

"The Pro-hero movement kind of took the wind out of their sails, it took public opinion off their side. They knew they'd never get it passed on its own, so they went a different route, adding it as an addendum to the Patriot Act renewal. They tacked it on at the last second and we didn't have time to build up much of a resistance, it passed clean. " Chloe shook her head in annoyance. "It basically states that anyone in the employ of the United States Government who stumbles upon the indentify of any known or unknown vigilante, is required to report them to the VRA."

"So they don't have to register themselves, but if they get caught…" Neal said.

"Then they go on the list." Chloe nodded.

"Is that so bad?" Neal asked confused. "I mean it's just a name on a list."

"Tell that to guys McCarthy blacklisted," Chloe snorted. "Some of them never worked again. Look, their name goes on the list and once you've been registered you're taken to a VRA facility to be processed. The party line is that they simply want to assess and catalogue your powers for the official record but they do so much more than that, they torture you, push your powers to their limits and then they push a little more. You're lucky to come out alive. The ones who have…they're done, finished, put on the hero equivalent of desk duty. The list is public, so suddenly they have no secret identities, their anonymity is gone. They can't do their jobs anymore, not effectively anyway."

"None of that matters to me, I want to help you." Neal told her. "I'm not going to report anyone."

"But you _have_ to," Chloe told him. "You're technically in the employ of a Federal Agency, and therefore the United States Government. If they ever found out you knew the identities of known vigilantes and didn't report them, it would void your deal with the State Department. You'd go back to jail."

"I don't care," Neal told her.

"I do," Chloe snapped at him. "Look, I'm the reason that you're in this mess in the first place. I'm the reason that you went to jail once, I won't be the reason you go back. In the end it's your decision to make, I just want you to take some time and think about it." Chloe stood up and nodded at Peter, smiled softly at Neal and then walked out of the door.

Chloe leaned against the back wall of the elevator as the doors closed, her whole body shaking with relief. She'd gone into the lion's den and walked right back out. She hadn't been met with handcuffs or a firing squad. Peter had listened to her and let her go, maybe she could trust him. Which was good because if she wanted to get Bart back, Peter and Neal might be her only choice.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"I'm going to help her." Neal said to Peter when she'd left.

"It's not that simple Neal," Peter said flipping the card over in his hands.

"It is that simple," Neal shook his head, pushing himself to his feet.

"These guys, the vigilantes that she's trying to protect, they're dangerous." Peter told him.

"They're heroes," Neal argued.

"You don't know that, you don't know them," Peter said. "They have powers that you can't imagine. Unnatural powers Neal."

Neal closed his eyes because Peter didn't know. He didn't understand, he couldn't, but then it again, Neal didn't always understand.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"_These people are dangerous Chloe," Neal said. "I don't like you working with them." _

"_You don't know them," Chloe countered. "You don't understand." _

"_No I don't." Neal shook his head. "I don't understand how you can defend them. They've blown up three of Lex's facilities. They're terrorists." _

_"They're heroes." Chloe snapped at him. "Do you know what Lex was doing in those facilities?" She pulled down the collar of her shirt and showed Neal a familiar jagged white scar. "He's taking people, people with abilities and he's experimenting on them, he's torturing them." _

_Neal swallowed his words when he realized the full implications of what she was saying. "Did he experiment on you?" Chloe nodded stiffly. "So then you're like them? You have—"_

"_I can heal people." Chloe told him. "Well, I can take their injuries into myself." _

"_You can heal people?" Neal asked in a whisper. _

"_I was caught in the first meteor shower when I was a kid. Me and mom were driving through town. I've got a large concentration of meteor rock surrounding my heart. I didn't even know about it until a few years ago." _

"_But you're ok?" Neal asked her. "I mean it's not gonna kill you or anything?" _

"_No," Chloe said then paused. "Well, we don't think so. Look, not only are these guys heroes, they're my friends and the work that they're doing is so unbelievable important. I want to be a part of that. I'm going to be a part of that." She wasn't asking him, she was telling him. Neal knew Chloe well enough that if he forced the issue, she would choose them over him. _

"_Ok, then." Neal said and Chloe looked at him in surprise. "I trust you." _

"_Thanks." Chloe slumped in relief. _

_::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::_

"I know her," Neal snapped. "I know Chloe and I know if she's helping them then they can't be all bad. You can do what you want to do Peter, but I'm helping her." He plucked the card from Peter's fingers and walked out the door.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal stood outside Chloe's building at 6:55, running his fingers down the tenant list. "She didn't put an apartment number on the card," a voice said from behind him.

Neal turned to see Peter standing over his shoulder looking at the list. He smiled then turned back, pressing the button next to the slot that said E. Perine. "Effie Perine," Neal elaborated.

Peter laughed. "Sam Spade's secretary in the Maltese Falcon. Does that make you Humphrey Bogart?"

Neal just shook his head. "I didn't think you'd come."

"If you trust her then I trust her," Peter shrugged as the door buzzed and opened for them.

"Why?" Neal followed him to the elevator.

"Because I trust you." Peter shrugged, punching the button for the top floor and Neal tried to hide his smile as elevator doors closed.

When they got to her apartment neither of them were really all that surprised when Mozzie opened the door. Mozzie on the other hand seemed very surprised to see Peter there. "You brought the Suit?"

"Moz, don't start," Neal shook his head and moved to walk into the apartment.

"Not so fast," Mozzie held out his hand, stopping Neal in his tracks. "Password?" he asked them.

Peter and Neal looked at each other confused then back at Moz. "We didn't get a password."

"Really?" Mozzie narrowed his eyes.

Peter nudged Neal's shoulder. "You don't have the password?"

"There is no password," Neal said then turned to a bit unsure. "Is there?"

"I don't know, is there?" Mozzie asked haughtily and Neal narrowed his eyes before groaning because with Mozzie you never knew.

"Moz, let them in," Chloe said, the slightest hint of laughter in her voice and the door is pulled from Moz's hand as Chloe opens it wider, allowing them to enter the apartment.

Mozzie kept a careful eye on Peter as he walked past until Chloe nudged his shoulder and rolled her eyes. He smiled at her and walked over to a table in the corner that was covered with some project he was working on. "Hey," Chloe smiled up at Neal and Peter as she closed the door. "Come on in please."

"Wow," Peter said in awe as he walked into the main room and saw all of Chloe's monitors and equipment. "This is a pretty serious set up."

"You think this is impressive you should see my Watchtower in Metropolis," Chloe smiled proudly and Peter knew this is where she's most comfortable.

"Are you ready to tell us what's going on?" Neal asked.

"I think introductions are in order first," Chloe took a deep breath, wondering for the last time if she was doing the right thing. As if sensing her hesitation Oliver laid a hand on her arm.

"Chlo, are you sure we can trust him?" he nodded his head at Neal and Chloe looked over at him, remembering the way he dropped a kiss to the top of her shoulder right before she fell asleep the last time she saw him and wondered why she'd ever stopped trusting him. Right now all the reasons and excuses she'd had before just weren't cutting it, because he was here, now. "With this? Yeah, we can trust him with this," Chloe said and Neal smiled, "With your bank account, not so much."

Neal laughed because it was true. "Touché," he said tipping his hat to her and just like that, the tension seemed to break for the moment.

"Right, so introductions," Chloe turned around. "This is Victor Stone A.K.A. Cyborg," Victor lifted a hand up in a semi-wave from his place in front of the computer. "Arthur Curry A.K.A. Aquaman," AC walked up next to Victor and nodded. "And I believe you've met Oliver Queen."

"Please don't say it, please don't say it," Peter mumbled under his breath and Neal shot him a confused look as Chloe just smirked.

"A.K.A. The Green Arrow."

"And she said it," Peter sighed. "Shit, shit, shit," he stood up and started pacing the room.

"Peter?" Neal frowned at him.

"I mean I knew, you warned me you were working with Vigilantes."

"We don't actually like that word if you don't mind," AC said.

"We prefer Meta's if you absolutely have to use something," Victor added.

"Excuse me, I apologize," Peter said to them sincerely. "I knew coming into this you were working with Meta's, but I had no idea you meant numbers one thru three on the VRA's most wanted list." Peter ran a hand through his hair. "I mean my God, their pictures are hanging in the lobby of FBI headquarters next to Bin Laden."

"Ouch," Victor said.

"Wait, one thru three?" Oliver smirked. "You mean I finally passed Boyscout on the list?"

He looked so excited that he was more of a public enemy than Clark and Chloe shook her head in exasperation.

"Boyscout?" Peter frowned, the name unfamiliar to him.

"You probably know him as The Blur," Chloe offered.

"The Blur," Peter said. "Please tell me he's not here, I don't think I could handle that."

"He's not," Chloe said. "He wanted to be but we couldn't risk him falling into the wrong hands."

"Wait," Peter stopped and sat back down. "Falling into the wrong hands? What do you mean by that?"

"A friend of ours, a _very close_ friend of ours, is missing. Kidnapped," Oliver said.

"I don't have a lot of experience with kidnappings." Peter reminded her.

"Well it's technically not a kidnapping," Chloe elaborated.

"Right. There you go with the '_technically'_ again," Peter smiled. "If it's technically not a kidnapping then what is it?"

"Human trafficking," Oliver piped up when Chloe couldn't bring herself to answer him.

"Ok, things just got serious," Neal said leaning forward.

"Bart—that's his name—Bart he was, I guess _caught_ is really a better word than _taken_, a little over two weeks ago," Chloe grabbed a touch pad off the table behind her and tapped it a few times. A large computer screen was lowered into the middle of the room showing a picture of a young guy. He had brown hair, green eyes and a crooked smile. He looked vaguely familiar to Neal.

"He's just a kid," Peter said under his breath and Chloe felt a catch in her throat.

"We tracked him here to a walk up in Alphabet City." Chloe tapped the pad again and the image changed to the outside of a dilapidated building façade. "There are four guys holding him," the picture changed again, this time there were some large thug looking guys on the screen. "They're hired guns and very good at their job." Chloe cut her eyes to Oliver.

"You went in," Neal looked between Chloe and Oliver. "You went in to get him during June's party. That's when you got shot."

Oliver started to protest but Chloe glared at him. "Yes, because that's what happens when you go off script and don't wait for backup. You get shot."

"I get it. I think the .45 that tore through my gut drove that particular message home," Oliver said to Chloe but she didn't seem pacified. "Look, two of the guards left together. We'd been sitting on that building for three weeks and for three weeks, there were never fewer than three guards there at once. It was a chance I had to take."

"Did you even get close to him?" Peter asked.

"Oh I got him," Oliver said. "Had his ass dragged to the door, we were practically out on the street but he wouldn't come."

"He wouldn't…I'm sorry he wouldn't come with you?" Peter asked confused.

"I know. I go through all the trouble of staging a rescue only to get shot down." Oliver shrugged and Chloe smirked.

"But why would he stay?" Neal asked.

"He said he had to," Chloe explained. "Bart's personality can be quite….abrasive for those that don't know him."

"Hell it can be abrasive for those who do," Victor snorted.

"And knowing Bart, being held against his will probably just intensified that." Chloe finished.

"Which means he was probably ten times more annoying than usual," AC said.

Chloe smiled softly. "He said that the guards used to talk about how they only had to put up with him for one more week, just one more week then he would go in the auction just like the others."

"Others?" Peter asked.

"Auction?" Neal frowned.

"That's what he wanted us to find out. He couldn't get any more out of the thugs than that. He wanted us to try and find the others, to figure out what auction they were talking about. In the mean time…"

"It never hurts to have someone on the inside." Peter nodded.

"Exactly, and if we couldn't figure it out in time then at least he'd be there, and him, we can track." Chloe tapped the pad again and the thugs were replaced by a map of the city with one small blinking red dot.

"We did some digging," Oliver stood up. "We managed to link the thugs back to a man named Roman Petrovich." The map of the city was replaced with a picture of a very severe looking Russian man.

"Why is that name familiar?" Neal asked.

"This guy's on every agency watch list there is. FBI, CIA, NSA, Interpol." Peter explained. "He's got his hands in everything, forgery, counterfeiting, smuggling, there's even murmurs about ties to a few drug cartels in South America. But no one's ever been able to get anything concrete on him, he always manages to slip through the cracks. Hell, no one even knows where he is, he's like a ghost." Peter studied the picture. "Is this recent?" Chloe nodded. "You know where he is?" Peter asked her impressed

"Oh, yeah," she waved him off. "He's in the city. He's got a place on the Upper West Side. Finding _him_ was the easy part." Peter scoffed, because he knew quite a few people at the FBI alone who would take affront to that statement.

"You haven't found the others yet?" Neal asked.

"No, but we know where they're going to be." Chloe said and looked over her shoulder at the board covered in pictures of the Metropolitan Museum.

"At the auction," Neal stood up and walked over to inspect the board.

"I'm still a little unclear about this auction." Peter frowned. "What's he selling?"

"Them," Neal turned around. "He's going to sell them, for their powers." Chloe nodded.

"They're meta's. That's why you can't bring in the cops." Peter said finally understanding. "Bart, what power does he have?"

"Super speed," Victor chimed in. "Impulse can run faster than pretty much anyone or anything on the planet."

"Impulse, of course, and there's number four on the most wanted list," Peter said a soft smile on his face.

"Why didn't he just run when they first took him?" Neal asked confused. "I mean if he's as fast as you say he is how did he get caught in the first place? For that matter, they all have powers, I don't understand."

"Not everyone's powers are defensive." Chloe said to Neal and he remembered her particular power and how useless it would be against four armed thugs. "Also, because of these," Chloe nodded to the monitor and Roman's picture was replaced with a grainy shot of Bart. Chloe tapped on the pad and the image zoomed into Bart's wrist, more specifically the two thick metal bands on his wrists.

"What are those?" Peter squinted at the bands.

"By the time I got to Oliver that night, the guards had already returned. Oliver was pinned down and bleeding pretty badly so I didn't get a good look at them," Victor said. "From what I can tell, they emit some sort of a field or a signal that neutralizes the power of the wearer. We've heard rumors that someone was developing something like it but we had no idea they were this far along, hell we weren't even sure it was possible until a few days ago. As long as they have these bracelets on, they are totally defenseless."

"So what's the plan then?" Neal turned around.

"I managed to get into his computer. The auction is Friday at the Met," Chloe said. "To the outside world, it looks like he's auctioning off one of his collections. It's mainly a bunch of Post-Impressionist stuff." Chloe pulled a piece of paper off the wall and passed it to Peter and Neal. "But the paintings don't matter, they're just a cover."

"When you bid on the painting, you're really bidding on a specific power?" Neal asked connecting the dots and Chloe nodded.

"I managed to…procure an invite to the auction," Chloe said and Mozzie coughed loudly from the table in the corner. "Moz managed to procure an invite to the auction that he is in the process of copying. We need to get the original back to its owner before it's missed."

"There's an embedded RFID chip that's proving a bit tricky," Mozzie said.

"Oliver was going to go in with me, but he had to go and get himself shot," Chloe glared at Oliver over her shoulder.

"I'll go in with you." Neal said and Chloe and Peter looked at him. "I'm the obvious choice here. Oliver's out. Victor, from what I know about Cyborg, you'd never make it past the metal detectors and AC, no offense I know we just met each other like ten minutes ago but I already know you probably couldn't grift to save your life."

"No offense taken." AC smiled at him.

"So how are you getting the others out?" Neal stood up and looked at her plans of the museum.

"I'm still working on that," Chloe bit her lip. "I need one of those bracelets to figure out how they work so I can figure out how to get them off. I know Roman didn't make them. He's into a lot of things but something this sophisticated—not his style."

"You think he had them made?" Peter asked.

"No, I think he bought them. I've been hearing rumors for a while that someone had developed something like this but I haven't been able to find out who. I guess Roman did."

"I know a fence," Neal smirked. "If someone's selling them, she'll find them."

"She does still owe me for Copenhagen," Chloe smiled. "Call her."

Neal pulled out his phone and walked down the hall to have a bit of privacy. When he came back he was smiling as he put his phone back in his pocket. "She said to give her five hours."

Chloe raised her eyebrows. "We've been looking for these bracelets for a little over a year now and your friend is going to find them in five hours?" Victor asked.

"Alex is good at what she does," Chloe shrugged.

"Ok, if she manages to find the bracelets _and_ we figure out a way to deactivate them, it'll still probably require a device of some kind that you'll never get past security." Victor said.

Neal and Chloe thought for a second and then turned to each other. "We need a Trojan Horse," they said at the same time and Chloe slid into a chair behind her computer.

"I need to see every exhibit currently on loan to the museum," Neal said looking over her shoulder.

"Already ahead of you," Chloe said pulling up the museum inventory and scrolling through the items. "It can't be too big,"

"But big enough to hide a device inside," Neal nodded.

"Do they do this a lot?" Peter asked Mozzie who looked up long enough to smile at Chloe and Neal and then go back to his work.

"Wait, wait, back up," Neal reached over her shoulder and pointed at the screen. "They have a Cellini," Neal smirked and Chloe tilted her head back to look up at him. Peter squinted at the sculpture on the screen. _The Head of Medusa_.

"We're gonna need supplies." Chloe and Neal both turned to Mozzie who looked up after a second and sighed.

"I'm a little busy here, creating your invite." He motioned to the paper in front of him.

"Victor can fix the RFID," Chloe said. "I don't know this city and we need to get this stuff on the quiet."

Mozzie sighed. "Cellini's Medusa?" Neal nodded. "You need it good enough to fool the curator, that means you're going to have to actually bronze it. That means quite a bit of expensive equipment." Mozzie looked up at Neal who turned to Peter.

"Hey this is not an official FBI investigation, I can't foot the bill on this one," Peter shook his head.

Neal paused and then he and Peter both turned to Chloe who laughed and shook her head before turning to Oliver. "Right," he dug his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a card, passing it over to Mozzie.

Mozzie stared at the black Am-Ex in Oliver's hand and then up at Oliver, "Considering I actually thought these were a myth, it's nice to be proven wrong, but I don't do plastic. That's how they track you, you know. Cash only." Oliver rolled his eyes then put the card back in his wallet and pulled out a handful of hundreds. Before he could count them out, Mozzie grabbed them all and stuffed them in his back pocket. "This is a good start. I'll be back."

"Even hollow, this isn't going to give us a lot of space for the device," Victor said studying the image on the screen.

"You'll just have to make it small enough," Chloe told him.

"Or you could pick another sculpture," Victor offered and Chloe and Neal looked at each other before shaking their heads.

"It's a Cellini." Chloe said as if that should explain everything to him.

"Alright what is the deal with this movie?" Peter asked.

"Movie? What movie?" Victor asked confused.

"How to Steal a Million." Peter said. "It's an old movie with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. It's like this one big inside joke between the two of them and I don't get it."

"I've seen that movie. Audrey Hepburn gets Peter O'Toole to steal a statue for her right?" Oliver asked and Chloe nodded.

"A Cellini." Neal smiled.

"It has something to do with the night they first met but Neal won't tell me," Peter looked over at him and Neal shrugged. "You've told Elizabeth, many times, and sworn her to secrecy. _She_ won't even tell me. Her own husband."

"I…plead the fifth on the grounds that revealing the details of that evening would cause me to incriminate myself," Neal admitted.

"You won't tell me because you were doing crime, there was crime involved wasn't there?" Peter said and Neal raised his eyebrows. "Ok, you know what?" Peter took off his badge and put it on the table. "I'm already looking the other way on so many things tonight, what's one more. You tell me the story and I swear that anything illegal you admit to, will go in one ear and out the other."

"Really?" Neal looked over at Chloe and then back at Peter. "Alright."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

**Seven Years Ago**

Neal tried to tone down his smile as the valet opened the car door but he couldn't. "Evening Mr. Devore."

"Jake," Neal nodded and tossed the man his keys.

"You're in a good mood tonight." Jake observed sliding into the driver's seat.

"I had a good day at work," Neal winked at him and headed for the hotel's entrance, taking the steps two at a time. He patted his front pocket unconsciously and smiled wider, it had been a _great_ day at work. Neal looked up at the double doors and he had a feeling that the night was only going to get better from here.

A short blonde in a tight black and dress was hurrying through the lobby. Her phone was in one hand, pressed tightly to her ear, in the other a pair of red heals dangled from her fingertips. Neal watched as she stopped in the middle of the lobby just long enough to slip one of the shoes on before resuming her walk to the door. The extra five inches added to one leg slowed her down a bit but she didn't seem to mind.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"I can't do this Lois," Chloe paced the lobby of the Gotham Arms hotel with her phone firmly pressed to her ear. "I don't know what made me think I could do this, I'm not _this_ girl." Chloe stopped pacing to look down at the tight short black dress that Lois loaned her. After she'd found Chloe in her, in a state of near panic, Chloe had spilled everything and Lois had taken over, picking out the dress and the shoes. She was very insistent on the shoes.

"You _can_ do this and you are _that_ girl," Lois said then paused. "Wait, you're not wearing the shoes are you?" Lois asked and Chloe looked down at her bare feet and wiggled her toes. "Well, that's your problem right there, without the shoes you're just a girl in a slutty dress. Put the shoes on, trust me, you'll feel better."

Chloe's phone beeped and she pulled it away to look at the map on the screen, more specifically the green dot on the map on the screen. "Shit," she turned to the lobby doors and watched as a car pulled up to the valet stand. "He's here." Chloe hissed. "I gotta go."

"No!" Lois practically screamed down the line. "Stay on the phone, it helps sell the bit, makes you look distracted. Besides I want to know what happens."

Chloe watched as a man got out of the car and tossed his keys to the valet. "Lois, I really have to concentrate right now, I can't be distracted by—" Chloe sucked in a breath as the man turned toward the lobby and she saw him for the first time. "Blue eyes," she said dumbly. For a second that's all she could see, the clearest, brightest, bluest eyes Chloe had ever seen in her life.

Chloe had done all her homework. She knew everything about Neal Caffery that she could possibly know. She'd seen his official FBI file, the sketch that Agent Burke had made and a few partial shots of him from various security camera's but nothing could have prepared her for the real thing.

His smile was, well, Chloe had never actually used the word mischievous before but it seemed like the only thing that could possibly do him justice. He looked like he was the only keeper of some devilishly playful secret. She certainly had no trouble understanding how he managed to con so many people. His hair was casually windswept in a way that Chloe knew was anything but actually casual, each hair was likely painstakingly put into place and his very expensive suit fit him like a glove.

"Blue eyes?" Lois said confused. "Oh my God, he's hot isn't he?"

"No," Chloe shook her head, getting her head back in the game.

"You gasped!" Lois practically cackled with laughter. "He _literally_ took your breath away."

"Shut up," Chloe said as she walked to the door. "I need to concentrate."

"Yeah on his hot body," Lois laughed.

Chloe stopped and slipped one of the shoes on, watching out of the corner of her eye as he took the steps two at a time. "I hate you," Chloe sighed as she hurried to the door, reaching for the handle just as Neal did.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal reached forward and grabbed the door handle at the same time she did. She wasn't paying attention to him though, too engrossed in her phone call, so she pushed as he pulled. It threw her off balance, pitching her forward. Neal let go of the door handle and quickly stepped forward, grabbing onto her waist to hold her steady. This finally seemed to catch her attention and she looked up at him, her hands on his chest, her face a mixture of sheepish embarrassment and a little bit of fear.

"I've got to go," the blonde said into the phone, hanging up quickly, her eyes never leaving his.

"Careful there." Neal offered her, flashing a set of dimples and she ducked her head.

"I'm so sorry. I'm late and I wasn't watching where I was going," she said suddenly, pulling herself free from his embrace.

"It would probably help if you had two shoes on as well." Neal pointed on, nodding down to her feet and her cheeks turned even redder.

"Right." She laughed, keeping one hand on Neal's arm to steady herself as she used the other hand to slip her left shoe on. "Thank you." She said standing up straight and walking past him toward the valet stand.

"No problem." Neal called after her, tilting his head as he watched her walk to the valet stand.

"Mr. Wayne sent a car for you ma'am," the valet smiled at her opening the door to the black Rolls Royce.

"Thank you Steven," the blonde smiled sliding into the car. She looked back at him, noticing that he was still standing there staring at her and she winked before Steven closed the door.

Neal wondered if he should try bribing the girl at the front desk for the blonde's room number then remembered what the valet had said, _"Mr. Wayne sent a car for you". _Even on his best day he couldn't compete with Bruce Wayne.

That didn't mean he couldn't fantasize. So as Neal rode up the elevator and walked down the hall to his room he crafted a thank you letter in his head to the person who invented high heels, thinking about all the wonderful things they did for a woman's back side.

It wasn't until he was safely ensconced in his room did he reach into his breast pocket to pull out the manuscript and study it more closely. Only there was no manuscript in his breast pocket. Neal cursed under his breath and closed his eyes. He thought about the blonde, about her tumble through the door, the way she landed, both hands on his chest and couldn't believe he didn't see what was happening while it was happening. She'd totally played him.

_Well two can play at that game,_ Neal thought as he walked back to the door.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe swirled the red straw around in her drink as she slid a small black leather bound book across the table. "I promised I'd get it back for you didn't I?"

"Considering it wouldn't have even been stolen if it weren't for you it was the least you could do." Bruce Wayne grabbed the book and stared at it. "Bart owes me so big for this."

"I owe Bart so big for this," Chloe shook her head. She'd already involved Bart more than she wanted to when she called him up, swore him secrecy (which basically meant he couldn't, upon pain of death tell Clark what she was doing), then batted her eyelashes at him and asked him kindly to teach her how to pick a pocket. He worked with her for a month, showing her all the tricks of his trade.

Then one day he went to pay for lunch and his wallet was gone. He turned to Chloe who was standing next to him, holding his wallet between her index and middle finger, waving it in his face. He'd looked at his wallet and then at Chloe and bowed at her announcing that to lift _his_ wallet without him noticing meant the student had become the master.

The problem was, Neal had been unusually careful lately, trying not to draw too much attention to himself so Chloe knew she'd needed something spectacular to tempt him out of hiding. When she told Bart, he let it slip that he knew a guy who had something a guy like Neal would kill for.

Five hours later she found herself in Gotham City getting a tour of the Wayne's Private Art Collection by none other than Bruce Wayne himself. When she saw the black book, she knew that was it. Bart managed to somehow convince Bruce to loan it anonymously to the Gotham Museum. Chloe figured that it wouldn't be long before Neal crawled out of the woodwork. And she was right, the manuscript had been on display for a little under two weeks when he'd taken it.

"That was all a part of the plan," Chloe smiled and Bruce glared at her.

"Yeah well you could have just let me in on the plan from the get go," Bruce said. Chloe winced, she hadn't exactly explained the plan to Bruce until about an hour ago when she'd called him and told him that the manuscript had been stolen, that the one on display at the museum was a fake and if he brought it to her, she would give him the real one back.

"Would you have loaned the manuscript to the exhibit if I had?" Chloe asked and Bruce smirked. "That's what I thought. Do you have the fake?"

Bruce pulled an identical book out of his left coat pocket and tossed it across the table to Chloe then paused. "Wait, how do I know that whole thing wasn't a set up? That I didn't just give you the real one in exchange for the fake?"

"You don't." Chloe smirked as she dropped the book in her bag.

"Bart warned me about you," Bruce shook his head. "Said you were cocky."

"Did he?" Chloe smiled, not sure whether to be flattered or offended.

"Also said you had the skills to back it up," Bruce smiled.

"Are you gonna tell me how you and Bart met, cause he's pretty tight lipped about the whole thing." Chloe raised an eyebrow but Bruce didn't say anything. "Fine, I'll figure it out one day you know."

"From what Bart's told me about you, of that I have no doubt." Bruce laughed.

"Oh and here's my mark," Chloe sat up straighter. "Get lost, you're messing with my game." Bruce laughed and walked away from the table just as Neal walked into the bar.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal glanced around at the bar and almost froze when his eyes landed on the table in the back corner at the blonde in the black and dress and red 4 inch heels. He'd had to bribe the valet quite a bit to find out where the blonde was headed but at least he also got a name out of it. Chloe Sullivan. She didn't look flustered or hurried anymore, she looked calm and serious as she absently swirled her straw through the drink in front of her.

When she looked up and caught his eye, any hint of the blush she'd had before was completely gone and she raised her glass to him, nodding her head to call him over. He walked through the bar, his eyes never leaving hers as he slid into the booth across from her.

He didn't say anything, waited for her to make the first move. "Can I get you a drink?" She asked calling the waiter over.

"I'm not really sure if I should." Neal frowned as the waitress placed a martini glass in front of him. He sipped the drink cautiously. It was dry, two olives, just the way he liked it.

"Good?" Chloe asked him with a soft smile.

"You know my drink?" Neal raised his eyebrows at her and she shrugged. "You took my manuscript." He grabbed the toothpick and ate one of the olives before dropping it back in the glass.

"It's not _really_ yours now is it?" Chloe smirked at him and he couldn't help but let out a laugh. She reached into the bag at her side and pulled out a small metal disk, it was octagonal in shape, no bigger than the palm of her hand and Neal could see a hint of some sort of carving on the edges. Chloe tossed it in the air and he reached out and caught it instinctively. "There is a disk, almost exactly like this one in a vault at the Luther Mansion in Smallville."

"What does that have to do with me?" Neal asked, turning the disk over in his hands, running his fingers along the edges of the carvings. They weren't like anything he'd ever seen before which was intriguing enough for him not to get up and walk away.

"Steal it for me." Chloe said leaning forward and grabbing the toothpick from Neal's drink. She slid the last olive off into her mouth and then smiled, chewing slowly.

Neal leaned back in his seat and looked at her amused. "How To Steal A Million," he said quirking a smile at her. He had to chuckle as her eyes went wide. "Great movie. I hate to break it to you though sweetheart, I'm no Peter O'Toole."

"Good, cause I'm no Audrey Hepburn. You're still gonna steal it for me." Chloe said getting her confidence back quickly.

"And why am I doing this exactly?" He asked her.

She reached into the bag again and pulled out the black leather bound book and slid it across the table toward him just as she'd done to Bruce Wayne just minutes before. He reached out to grab it but she pulled it away at the last minute. "Be careful with that." Neal winced as it came precariously close to sliding in a ring of condensation from her glass. "It's very old."

"I know." Chloe said. "And you've been searching for it for a very long time."

"How do you know that?" Neal narrowed his eyes at her.

"The same way I knew your drink. I did my homework." Chloe shrugged. "A lost DaVinci manuscript. It's worth quite a bit to you isn't it?"

"It is." Neal nodded. "But not enough to steal from Lex Luther."

Chloe pursed her lips, almost as if she'd been afraid of this. "What if I offered to sweeten the deal?"

"I'm listening."

"You've got a certain FBI agent who I believe has been a bit of a thorn in your side."

"Peter?" Neal chuckled. "I can handle him."

"I'm sure you can." Chloe said. "But from what I've learned Special Agent Burke's got your scent now and he's not gonna give up."

"So what can you do about it then?" Neal asked.

"I can send him on such a wild goose chase that by the time he realizes what's going on, your trail will have been six months cold." Chloe said.

Neal knew he could handle Peter Burke and actually having to dodge him these past couple of months had been exciting, pushing him to his limits but life would be much easier if he wasn't looking over his shoulder ever five minutes.

"Take your time, think about it." Chloe took one last sip of her drink and dropped a handful of bills on the table before she slid the book back in her bag, stood up and walked away.

Chloe had to force herself to walk away from the table and not look back. Bart had told her the biggest mistake she could make was over selling, give them the facts and let them decide. She'd given him everything she had, the ball was in his court now. Bart had told her to make sure she had the last word, to leave first, and not to look back, he'd said she needed to make Neal come to her, not to seem too eager. She just had to trust that he knew what he was talking about.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Two weeks later, Chloe pushed through the door of the Talon apartment, Bart at her side. She hadn't been to sleep yet but she was still keyed up. Playing Watchtower to Oliver's team was exciting and she was good at it and more importantly she felt for the first time in a long time like she was doing good. Sure she helped Clark out but this was on such a different scale that it felt more important in a way.

Oliver stepped into the Clock Tower and before he'd even pushed the hood off of his head he was offering Chloe a permanent place on his team. Her first instinct was to shout "Yes!" but she swallowed that when Clark walked in behind Oliver. He was still a little weak from the Kryptonite and as much as she wanted to help Oliver, she knew that her work in Metropolis was more important for the moment.

There was still the problem with Lex and it wasn't like this was the first time that Clark had gone in somewhere on his own. If she left, Clark wouldn't have anyone to help him and Oliver had AC, Bart, and Victor so she politely declined. Oliver said he would keep asking and Chloe said one day she might tell him yes, just not today.

"You're really mad about this aren't you?" Bart asked her, closing the door behind him.

"I'm just saying, we were together basically 24/7 last month. In all that time you didn't think to mention you were working for him?" Chloe asked as she set her bag on the table.

"I didn't know you knew about him," Bart said. "I was trying to be discrete. Then there's the whole secret aspect of the work too."

"I know but this is me we're talking about," Chloe spun around and smiled up at him but Bart wasn't smiling back at her, in fact he was frowning at something over her shoulder. "What—"

Bart grabbed her arm and shoved her behind him before she could finish her sentence. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"

Chloe froze when she realized there was someone in her apartment. "I believe Chloe's been expecting me." A familiar voice said and Chloe peered over Bart's shoulder, relaxing when she saw Neal sitting on her couch.

"It's ok," Chloe curled her fingers around Bart's elbow and stepped around him. "I know him."

"You sure?" Bart asked her, looking between her and Neal uneasily.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Chloe nodded. "Look, why don't you go on ahead to Clark's. I'll meet you there."

Bart narrowed his eyes at Neal over Chloe's shoulder. "Wait, is this the guy?"

"Yeah, this is the guy," Chloe nodded. "So let me take care of this and I'll me you at Clark's ok."

"Yeah, ok," Bart nodded. He dropped a kiss on Chloe's cheek and walked to the door, his eyes never once leaving Neal's.

"Nice bodyguard you've got there." Neal stood up and Chloe spun on him, glaring.

"Don't," Chloe snapped at him. "It's been a long day and he's off limits."

"Sorry," Neal held up his hands. "I wasn't… I didn't mean anything by it."

"No, I'm sorry," Chloe rubbed her eyes and walked over to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. "I haven't slept in a few days and I'm…don't worry about it."

"You ok?" Neal frowned and walked over to the counter, leaning against it.

"I'll be fine," Chloe offered him a soft smile. "So you've thought about it then?"

"I have," Neal said. "Keep Peter off my back for a year and we've got a deal."

Chloe waited until there was enough coffee in the carafe before pouring herself a cup and practically gulping it down. She could keep Special Agent Burke off of Neal's back for a year in her sleep but she didn't want him to know it was that easy. "Deal." She said after a few minutes and Neal smiled at her.

"So I was thinking I could take you to out to dinner tonight and we could figure out a plan."

"That sounds great," Chloe grabbed a travel mug and filled it up. "Except for the dinner part, that's not gonna happen. Look I gotta go but I'll be back in about an hour. I'd walk you out but somehow I don't think that would do any good so just make yourself comfortable, help yourself to anything in the fridge or the coffee shop downstairs. Just tell them to put it on my tab."

"You're going to leave me alone in your apartment?"

"The manuscript's not here and I have absolutely nothing else of value so I don't see why not." Chloe smirked and walked out of the room.

Neal sighed just because she said it wasn't there, didn't mean it wasn't there. He'd only had time to search the bookcase for the manuscript before he heard her key in the lock. Neal pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "So looks like I might need your help on this one after all," he sighed.

A minute later Neal opened Chloe's apartment door to see Mozzie standing on the other side. "Let me guess she didn't fall for the charm."

"No, and now I'm thinking I might actually have to steal this thing from Lex Luther." Neal sat down at Chloe's table and sighed. "Have you figured out what it is yet?"

Mozzie pulled the small metal disk out of his bag and sat down across from Neal. "Considering this is a fake I can't be sure about anything. It's made out of steel, it's got eight sides, you know as much as I do." Mozzie spun the disk on the table top.

"What about the carvings, have you figured out what those are yet?" Neal grabbed the disk and looked at it, tracing the strange symbols with his fingers.

"Now those are interesting," Mozzie smiled. "I tried matching it with all known logographic languages and I came up empty until I searched locally."

"Locally?" Neal frowned. "Locally where?"

"Locally here," Mozzie pulled out a stack of papers and passed them to Neal. "There's a set of caves here in Smallville, the Kawatche caves. It's an old Native American site and these symbols are all over those caves."

"So what are Native American symbols doing on steel disk?" Neal frowned.

"Here's the real interesting part," Mozzie smiled excitedly. "The symbols aren't Native American. The Kawatche's had their own language but this isn't it."

"So then, what the hell is it?"

"I have no idea." Mozzie shrugged.

"If we don't know what it is, there's no way to tell why it's so important." Neal sighed.

"Does it matter why she wants it?" Mozzie asked. "You steal the disk for her and she gives you the manuscript back. Look, you shouldn't worry about why she wants it."

"I shouldn't?" Neal asked.

"No," Mozzie rolled his eyes. "What you should be worried about is how the hell you're going to get into Lex Luther's vault."

"I've been thinking about that," Neal said.

"And?" Mozzie asked.

"I'm still thinking." Neal told him defensively.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

When Chloe got back two hours later she didn't seem at all surprised to see someone else in her apartment. "Ah you brought in backup?" Chloe raised her eyebrow at Neal as she dropped the large paper bag on the table between them. "Good thing I got extra."

"Chloe, this is—"

"Moz right?" Chloe asked pulling the Chinese food cartons out of the bag. "I've heard absolutely nothing about you."

Mozzie smiled up at Chloe, "Good, none of its true. Did you happen to get dumplings?" He peered into the bag and Chloe grabbed a carton handing it over.

"There are chopsticks and silverware in the drawer and drinks in the fridge," Chloe sat down next to Neal as Mozzie got up and walked to the kitchen.

"I thought you said we weren't going to have diner," Neal grabbed a carton and opened it, inspecting the food inside before taking the chopsticks that Mozzie was holding out to him.

"No I said you weren't going to take me to diner." Chloe smiled. "There's a difference."

"What exactly." Neal asked her.

"I paid," Chloe smirked and stole a piece of chicken from his carton. "You're thinking about hacking Lex's security system?" She pointed to the papers on the table.

"Yeah, I figured maybe we could sneak in through a back door, but something tells me that Luther's not the type to have many of those." Mozzie frowned and Chloe shook her head.

"You can't hack the system." Chloe told him. "It wouldn't matter anyway. Trust me if it were that easy I wouldn't be talking to you right now and there's no cracking the vault either."

"Then how do I get in?" Neal asked.

"You're going to need to get him to let you in." Chloe said.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Neal raised his eyebrows.

"Do you know what this is?" Chloe pulled a picture out of her bag and handed it to him. Neal looked down at the picture of the gold ring. On the front there was a shield and inside the shield there was a snake curled up in the shape of an S.

"Is this," Neal looked up at Chloe. "This is Alexander the Great's Signet ring."

"Yes it is." Chloe nodded, grabbing a dumpling out of Mozzie's box. "And right now it's sitting in a locked case inside the Luther vault."

"You want me to steal that too?" Neal snorted.

"Not exactly," Chloe smiled.

"You're pulling a Trojan Horse," Mozzie nodded his head at her.

Chloe smiled and set down her carton to grab a different one. "How long would it take for you to make one of those?" she nodded at the picture.

"How good does it need to be?" Neal looked down at the picture.

Chloe swallowed the mouthful of food she'd just taken and explained. "Last year, Lex loaned out the ring, along with Alexander's breastplate and a few other Macedonian artifacts to a roaming exhibit. It went all over the world, Moscow, Prague, Amsterdam, Bejing, a few museums in the states. He just got it back last month. We just need to make him think that at one of those places his was switched for a forgery."

Neal nodded getting the plan. "So we go in with a fake, claiming it's the real one. Lex has to open the vault to get his out for testing and that's when I switch the disks." He looked over at Chloe. "It's a good plan. There's just one thing. Who exactly am I supposed to be that would give Lex a reason to trust that I have the real ring and not a fake?"

"Oh, I think you're going to like this part," Chloe smirked at him.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"This fabric is itchy." Neal said looking down at the cheap suit that hung loosely off his frame.

"It's supposed to be itchy." Chloe straightened the lines of his jacket and ruffled his perfectly fixed hair a bit. "Slouch just a little ok."

Neal rolled his eyes at her and let his shoulders drop slightly. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Trust me," Chloe said loosening his tie and pulling it a bit off kilter.

"Yeah, trust's not so big in my line of work," Neal looked down at her.

"It's kind of required in mine," Chloe stepped back and studied him. She nodded, deeming him acceptable and pulled something out of her pocket. "Here, put this in your ear." Neal frowned and put the small earpiece in his ear. "I can hear you and you can hear me."

"Nice," Neal said. "So what exactly is your line of work? I'm just wondering where a reporter for the Daily Planet gets this kind of tech, and why you need _me_ to steal a metal disk from Lex Luther."

"The tech is from a friend," Chloe said vaguely. "And as for the disk, let's just say it's for the good of humanity."

"Wow, the good of humanity," Neal said. "That one's new. Normally it's for the good of someone's bank account."

"Not worth money, not to me anyway." Chloe shrugged. "All I can tell you is that the world will be a much safer place when that disk is nowhere near Lex Luther."

"You guys have a history," Neal said. "You and Lex. And I'm not just talking about how you and he teamed up to put Lionel Luther away for murder. There's something else there."

Chloe stared at Neal for a second. He didn't actually think that she was going to tell him anything so when she grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled it down, showing him a large, angry red and white scar on her collarbone he was shocked. He took a few steps, closing the distance between them and reached out before he could stop himself, tracing a finger down the scar.

She stared up at him but didn't move to stop him or push him away. "He did this to you?"

"No directly," Chloe said letting go of the collar and covering the scar up. "Let's just say that I know what Lex Luther's capable of and I'll do whatever I have to do to protect myself and my family from him."

"I can understand that," Neal nodded.

"You've got the ring?" Chloe asked turning away, changing the subject. Neal patted the briefcase at his side and Chloe took a deep breath. "Ok then let's do this."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal sat in the black leather chair in front of the fire place in Lex's office. _"You're not slouching, you should be slouching." _Chloe said in his ear and the sensation was just a little bit jarring, almost like she was in his head. Neal slouched and heard Chloe chuckle. _"Better."_

Neal looked around the room confused until he spotted the security cameras. "I thought you said his system couldn't be hacked."

"_I said Moz couldn't hack his system."_ Chloe corrected him. _"I've been playing around in here for years though. I still have a few back doors that Lex doesn't know about."_

"So you're watching me?" Neal asked. "That's kind of creepy." Chloe just laughed and the doors to the office were flung open and Lex walked into the room.

"Mr. Luther." Neal jumped up from his seat, the briefcase in his lap swinging at his side as he dug in his breast pocket for a wallet. "Special Agent Peter Burke from the FBI." He flipped the wallet open and flashed a badge and ID with Peter's name and his picture on it.

The badge and the ID were good, top quality forgeries. Neal was almost fooled by them but he was pretty sure that Lex wouldn't be.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"_If he's as connected as everyone says he is, all he has to do is make a few calls, check Peter out and my cover's blown." Neal pointed out. Chloe just smiled at him, typed something on her keyboard then turned the computer to face him. He laughed. _

"_I hacked into the FBI's personnel files." Chloe told him as Neal stared at Peter's file with his picture attached. "Anyone checks, they'll find you." _

"_Can I get a copy of that?" Neal pointed at the file and Chloe turned the screen away from him. _

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Yes, Special Agent Burke," Lex sat down behind his computer and motioned for Neal to take a seat as well. "When your assistant called to set up the meeting, she mentioned a man named Neal Caffery."

"Yes." Neal nodded.

"I hope you don't mind, I called a few friends, got a copy of his file." Lex pulled a manila folder out of his desk drawer and Neal froze. "I like to be prepared," Lex shrugged.

"_Breathe," _Chloe said in his ear._ "Take the file." _

Neal reached across the desk and picked up the file under Lex's unwavering gaze. He opened it up and just managed to keep his poker face intact when he saw a picture of Peter, scowling, attached to his FBI file. _"I told you to trust me," _Chloe reminded him and he let out a slow breath.

"He doesn't exactly seem like a criminal mastermind." Lex said. "An adequate forger I suppose."

"Adequate?" Neal started.

"_Seriously? You want to do that now?" _Chloe chuckled.

"Right," Neal coughed and opened his briefcase. "We confiscated this from a fence, who said that he got it from Neal Caffery who claims to have stolen from you." He pulled out the fake ring and set it on the desk between him and Lex.

Lex stared at the ring cautiously for a second before reaching out and picking it up. "I think you're mistaken." Lex inspected the ring carefully. "My ring is locked up safe and sound in the vault," he looked over his shoulder at the wall panels behind him.

"That's a fake," Neal shook his head.

"And this is the real one?" Lex asked.

"We've had it authenticated," Neal told him. "According to the fence, it was switched out in Moscow."

"That's impossible," Lex said standing up and walking over to the vault. Neal started to follow him but paused when he saw the small golden cherub on Lex's desk. He knew that cherub, that was Alex's cherub, a piece of the music box. What he didn't know was why it was sitting on Lex Luther's desk.

"_Neal? You want to maybe focus?" _Chloe asked a bit nervously in his ear and he jumped up and slid into the vault behind Lex. He looked around and saw the metal disk sitting on the shelf behind him. Lex grabbed a metal case out of a drawer and while he was distracted Neal switched the disks.

"You don't mind if I have this authenticated by my own people do you?" Lex asked Neal and he shook his head.

"Feel free," Neal said as he pulled a business card out of his pocket. "After you do that, give me a call and we can talk about pressing charges."

"You will certainly be hearing from me," Lex took the card. "I appreciate this Agent Burke."

"My pleasure Mr. Luther." Neal shook his hand. "I'll just see myself out."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal stepped into Chloe's apartment and smiled when he saw her standing by the coffee maker sipping slowly from her cup. "Nice touch with the business card," Chloe said. "Where'd you get it?"

"Peter gave it to me actually," Neal said shrugging off the suit coat and dropping the briefcase to the table. Chloe laughed and shook her head.

"Classic," Chloe sighed and walked over to him.

"So here it is." Neal pulled the disk out of his pocket and held it out to her. She reached out for it, only to stop and drop her arm back down to her side.

Clark didn't need the key to get the fortress and if she gave it to him he'd probably just stick it the barn somewhere. That was hardly the safest place for it and if Lex ever discovered the switch, the first place he'd probably look.

"It might be better for all parties involved if you held onto that." Chloe said slowly.

Neal raised his eyebrows. "I don't even know it what it is." He pointed out.

"Which is why you're the perfect person to keep track of it." Chloe said. "Stick it in a forgotten corner of one of your many storage units and just forget about it."

"Are you sure?" Neal frowned and looked down at the disk.

"I trust you," Chloe said. People told him that all the time, if he didn't make people trust him, he'd be out of work very quickly but this was the first time he felt like it actually meant something.

"Ok," Neal dropped the disk back into his pocket.

"I guess that's it then, it was nice working with you Simon," Chloe held out her hand and it suddenly hit Neal that this was over. She'd gotten what she wanted and it was time for him to leave.

"Right," Neal grabbed her hand and shook it. "It was nice working with you Nicole." Neal took a deep breath and turned to the door only to stop and turn back around. "Aren't you forgetting something?" Neal asked, a twinkle in his eye. Chloe just stared at him confused. "My manuscript. We had a deal." Neal pointed out.

"I gave it back." Chloe admitted nervously.

"You gave it back?" Neal groaned. "I've been searching for that for years."

"I know but really it was all for the best. It's going to go a long way to getting Peter off your back and you didn't want it anyway." Chloe told him.

"No I did, I did want it, that's why I went through all the trouble of stealing it." Neal smiled.

"Look, the guy who you stole that from, he makes Lex look like a puppy. A cuddly, fluffy little puppy. You do not want to be on his bad side." Chloe said and then tossed him the fake that he'd made, the one he switched for the real one and he caught it. "Look, this is a win/win for you. I'm still gonna keep Peter off your back and I've saved you from making a very scary enemy."

"I suppose I should say thanks then." Neal asked and couldn't help but shake his head.

"You're welcome," Chloe smiled brightly at him and he grabbed the door handle. "Hey, Neal?"

Neal turned around as Chloe tossed something to him. He reached out and grabbed the object out of the air then smiled when he looked down in his hand and saw the golden cherub. "How did you-?"

"I saw you eyeing it in Lex's office," Chloe shrugged. "I had a friend pick it up."

"I just left there," Neal pointed out. "How did he beat me back here?"

"He's quick." Chloe said. "Alex knows more about the music box than she's telling you." Neal frowned at her. "Ask her about her grandfather."

"I'll do that." Neal said, not bothering to ask her at this point how she knew any of that, he just had to come to terms with the fact that Chloe knew everything.

"So are we square now?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah, we're square," Neal dropped the cherub in his pocket next to the disk and walked out the door.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Peter stared at Neal for a second then laughed. "Well that explains the strange call I got from Lex Luther about a ring. That's actually been bugging me for a while now. I can't believe you impersonated me."

"That falls under the 'in one ear and out the other' thing doesn't it?" Neal asked hopefully and Peter just shook his head.

"You know, that story does bring up an interesting point. Who's your inside man here?" Peter asked and Neal and Chloe turned to him. "You're running a Trojan Horse. You need an inside man-someone credible enough to get the bust into the museum. Oliver's too visible, and you're right, there's no way AC can pull of a grift like this."

"Victor?" Neal asked and Chloe shook her head.

"Normally I'd say yes but I might need him somewhere else," Chloe said.

Peter smirked as he stared at the inventory of the museum. "Guess who the Cellini's insured with?" Neal looked down at the screen and then back up at Peter.

"No," Neal shook his head and Peter nodded. "She _hates_ me."

"She's owes you," Peter pointed out.

"She'd kill me if she had the chance and dump my body in a shallow grave." Neal protested.

"I'm calling her," Peter said pulling out his phone.

Chloe looked over at Neal and raised her eyebrows. "Sara Ellis, she's an agent with the company that insures the Cellini, we've had…dealings in the past."

"A woman that Neal Caffery couldn't charm?" Chloe smirked. "I don't believe it."

"There are women in this world who don't fall for my charm." Neal told her.

"Name one," Chloe laughed.

"You." Neal said seriously.

"You sure about that?" Chloe winked and walked away to talk to Peter.


	5. Chapter 5

The first time Neal stepped foot in a museum he was twelve. He'd only slipped inside trying to hide out from a beat cop who'd been chasing him fifteen blocks for one lousy stolen candy bar but even after he'd realized the cop had given up he'd stayed because in less than two minutes, he was completely hooked. He was mesmerized by the beauty that he saw all around him, by the paintings and the sketches and the sculptures. He never knew that things like that existed. And certainly not in a place where you could just go and look at them whenever you wanted.

He stayed until closing, walking from room to room, painting to painting, absorbing everything with a child's eye full of awe and wonder. The colors were so much brighter than he ever imagined the sculptures so much more lifelike than he thought possible. He was amazed by the way a simple landscape could evoke such feelings of loneliness in him or how a portrait could elicit such longing.

Then there were the people. The museum was packed with school children and tourists and college students and business men on their lunch break. There were so many different people from so many different walks of life, all in the same place, all speaking the same language – art. That's when Neal decided he was going to be an artist.

He went out that night and stole a sketch book and some charcoal pencils and tried to create his own masterpiece, but he couldn't. He couldn't seem to make the things that he saw in his mind translate onto the paper. Thinking, perhaps it was just the medium to blame, the next day he switched to paint and canvas but still, it just wasn't right. Sculpting didn't go any better either and he didn't understand.

So he went back to the museum and he stayed until they kicked him out. He came back the next day and the day after that and the day after that. He looked at every painting, studied every sculpture. He drank in the details, almost as if he wanted to memorize them. And somehow, he did.

The next time he sat in front of his sketch book it wasn't something of his own design that came to mind, rather something he remembered from the museum. When he closed his eyes he could see the sketch as clearly as if it were right in front of him. So he sketched that, exactly as he remembered it, stroke for stroke, smudge for smudge, and when he finished, it was practically perfect.

He found that if he worked at it, he could duplicate anything that he saw, no matter the medium. He didn't understand how he could feel so connected to brushstrokes that weren't his, to carving marks that he didn't initially create and yet no matter how hard he tried he couldn't seem to get his own feelings, his own strokes out right.

As an artist this was a source of contention for Neal, but he realized very quickly in the world of forgers it was a blessing. Forgery was its own art from and like all other's it wasn't something that normally came easy. Good forgers were generally classically trained artists. They could study and work hard for years, and still only manage to produce a reasonable facsimile of a masterpiece. They were usually in it for the money.

Great forgers however, they were usually in it for love. Love of art, love of history, love of beauty in whatever form. Neal was one of the great ones. He could look at a piece, a piece that he'd never seen before and know what the artist was thinking, what he was feeling when he'd created it. More importantly, he could take that knowledge and he could put those thoughts and those feelings into his work.

Neal didn't copy art, he recreated it.

Chloe stood in the doorway of the balcony and smiled, watching as Neal's fingers smoothed out lines in the clay, molding it precisely. His brow was furrowed in concentration and the wind was blowing his hair into his eyes but he didn't seem to care. He looked between the almost finished bust in front of him and then over at the 3D holographic image of the sculpture that Chloe had created for him spinning lazily in the air and made a few adjustments.

"Can I help you with something," Neal asked without turning around as he grabbed a small tool off the table and started scraping some of the clay away.

"Nope, I just like watching you work," Chloe said and Neal turned and smiled at her. He grabbed the rag on the edge of the table and wiped his hands off.

"I'd forgotten you liked to do that." Neal said as she walked outside and held a cup of coffee out to him.

"It looks good." Chloe bent low next to the sculpture to study it. "It looks perfect."

"Not yet," Neal shook his head. "But give me another hour or so."

"I was thinking, before we went in there tomorrow night, we should probably have that talk," Chloe said.

"Yeah, we probably should," Neal nodded and sipped his coffee waiting for Chloe to make the first move.

"I know you've got a lot of questions for me and I'll answer them all, I swear. But before you ask me anything, there's just one thing I need to know." Chloe said softly and Neal nodded. "Where did you go that night?" Chloe asked him

Neal opened his mouth and Chloe could feel her heart beating faster and faster, waiting to hear what he had to say, but she never got the chance. From inside the apartment she heard the sound of the door buzzing and she sighed. "Hold that thought?" Chloe asked and Neal nodded, following her back into the room just as the door buzzed again.

"We've got company," Victor called out and Chloe, pulling the security feed up on the big monitor. Two woman were standing on stoop, waiting to be buzzed in.

"Oh this is gonna be awkward," Peter said with a smirk directed at Neal.

"I take it you know them?" Victor asked Neal and he nodded.

"We've been expecting them," Chloe said. "You can let them up."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Alex checked her watch as she hurried down the street. When Neal called earlier and asked for a favor she wanted to tell him to shove it up his ass. Then he'd dropped Chloe's name and Alex gave in, just like he knew she would. She finally had an opportunity to pay back her debt and she wasn't going to pass that up. So she'd told Neal to give her four hours. She'd gotten it done in three and a half. She was just that good.

After their disastrous attempt to steal the music box in Copenhagen, she'd wanted nothing more to do with Neal Caffrey. He'd landed her in the hospital, got her on Interpol's radar, and put her so massively in Chloe's debt, Alex wasn't sure she'd ever get out.

So when he'd contacted her a year ago about the music box again her first instinct had been to walk away. That feeling had only increased when she'd seen the anklet and met Neal's new BFF, Special Agent Peter Burke of the FBI, no way was she getting caught up with them. Then he'd told her that Chloe was in trouble, that the only way to get her back was the music box and after that Alex had no choice but to help. So she'd put her feelers out and gotten a lead at the Italian Consulate.

Once again, her first instinct had been to walk away. Stealing from the Italian's wasn't something one did lightly, especially when you had the FBI breathing down your neck, watching your every move. But he'd reminded her it was for Chloe and suddenly Alex found herself making a plan to break into the Consulate right under the nose of the FBI. Unfortunately her Intel had been faulty and there was no music box. Well there _had_ been a music box but someone had gotten to it long before she'd even heard the rumor it had been there.

In the end, she'd almost gotten pinched by the suit and Interpol moved her up to the top of their watch list which made getting out of the country a real bitch. There was a big chance she'd never be able to show her face in Italy again, which sucked because she liked Italy. On top of all that, she _still_ owed Chloe. On the other hand, Neal now owed her so at least she'd gotten something out of the deal.

Alex patted the bag slung around her shoulder and smiled. With this, she and Chloe were so even. She'd had to call in so many favors to get her hands on these things and whatever they hell these things were, they cost her a ridiculous amount of money. Hell after this, Chloe might even owe her one.

Alex looked down at her phone and double checked the address Neal had given her as a redhead got out of a cab a few yards ahead of her.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Sarah got out of the cab and looked up at the building. She wasn't exactly sure what made her agree to come when Peter called, but she was pretty sure that curiosity had a lot to do with it. And she knew what they said about curiosity. She paid the cabbie and walked up to the building, running her fingers down the list of names until she found Apartment 10c, 'E. Perrine'.

"The Maltese Falcon," Sarah laughed before pushing the button. "That is so Neal."

Sarah stepped back to wait for the lock to disengage just as a woman walked up behind her, scanned down the list before snorting and pushing her own button. The woman stood next to Sarah, glancing over at her quickly and offering her a tight smile. Sarah smiled back uneasily and couldn't help thinking that the girl looked really familiar.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Alex ducked into the doorway of the building on the right. The redhead she'd seen getting out of the cab was waiting at the door but she didn't pay her much attention as she ran her fingers down the tenant list. She knew Chloe's apartment the second she saw the name and snorted, leaning hard on the button before joining the redhead by the door.

Alex glanced at the other woman quickly, offering her tight smile. She looked really familiar but Alex couldn't seem to place her and decided to give up trying when the door buzzed to let them in.

They both reached for the handle at the same time. "After you," the redhead said and Alex ducked into the lobby of the building and headed for the elevators, tossing a curt 'thanks' over her shoulder.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Sarah held the door open for the brunette, getting a particularly unimpressive 'thanks' for her troubles before walking into the building after her. The other woman got to the elevator bank first and pressed the call button so Sara had nothing to do now but wait.

"Nice night tonight," Sara said idly trying to make conversation but the brunette just nodded and smiled. "I thought that Indian summer was going to last forever."

"The heat does tend to linger," the brunette agreed with her.

"But there was a nice breeze earlier," Sara pointed out lamely.

The elevator finally arrived putting them both out of their misery and they stepped in. Just like before with the door, they both reached out at the same time and pressed the button for the tenth floor.

"Huh," the brunette said, giving Sara a puzzled look before settling against the side of the elevator.

"I'm sorry, but have we met?" Sara asked unable to stop herself.

"I don't think so," the brunette shrugged. "But you do look familiar."

"Sara, Sara Ellis." Sara held out her hand and the brunette hesitated a second before shaking it.

"Alex," was all she said, offering Sara no last name.

"What kind of work are you in?" Sara asked.

"Art," Alex answered with a smile. "Acquisitions and Sales."

Sara's face split into a grin. "I'm in Insurance. Recovery. We must have crossed paths at some point."

Alex finally realized where she'd recognized Sara from. She was a legend in the business, granted on the other side of the law as Alex, but a legend none the less. Sara had recovered quite of few of Alex's acquisitions before she made it a point to stay away from the other woman's clients. It just wasn't worth the hassle.

"Oh, I'm sure we have." Alex said with her jaw clenched.

When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Alex wasn't all that surprised when Sara followed her down the hall. She was even less surprised when Sara came to a stop right next to her outside Chloe's door. Though from the look on Sara's face, she hadn't quite put the pieces together yet. Alex just smiled and knocked on the door, wondering what in the hell Neal had gotten her involved in this time.

Moz opened the door before Sara could ask Alex what was going on and greeted the other girl like a long lost friend. "Alex, long time no see."

"It's been three months," Alex rolled her eyes and pushed past the man into the apartment leaving Sara out in the hall by herself. Moz turned his attention to Sara, his smile dropping instantly as he took her in.

"For the record, I was against bringing you in on this," Moz said without preamble before turning and following Alex into the apartment.

Not exactly the warmest welcome Sara could have asked for, especially considering Peter had asked her there as a favor. She thought about turning around and walking away, about going back home to bed and pretending this night had never happened when Peter appeared in the doorway.

"I'm sorry about him. He's…well, he's Mozzie," Peter shrugged and really that was the only excuse he could give. "Come in, please."

Sara sighed, she had come all this way and she was pretty curious so she might as well see the whole thing through. She stepped over the thresh hold and Peter smiled, moving back to let her further into the apartment. She stopped just inside the door when she saw all the monitor's around the room and the people bustling back and forth, people that she had a gut feeling were not members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A large wall caught her attention out of the corner of her eye and she turned to study it closer. There were tons of pictures of the Metropolitan Museum, exterior shots, interior shots, security schematics. "Peter what—"

"I'll explain everything, I promise," Peter steered her further into the room, begging her with his eyes to just trust him.

He led her over to a sofa and sat her down, offering to get her a cup of coffee. She took him up on that and when he turned around and headed toward the kitchen, Sara saw Neal, standing next to a short blonde woman. Alex was in front of them, digging something out of the bag slung over her shoulder.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe's eyes lit up as Alex pulled the silver cuffs out of her bag and tossed them to her. "So we're square?" Alex asked and Chloe looked from her to the cuffs and then back again.

"We're more than square," Chloe assured the woman, passing the cuffs off to Victor who immediately started to dismantle them.

"Alright then," Alex nodded, slinging the bag back across her shoulder, her eyes darting to the picture of Roman Petrovitch on one of the monitors. "Look, I don't know what you've gotten yourself mixed up in but, Petrovitch is not a man you mess with lightly." Alex said. "I had to overturn a _lot_ of rocks that definitely would have been better off left unturned to find those things and his name came up every time. I mean, _I'm_ seriously contemplating leaving the country for a few days just in case, so, you know, watch your backs."

"We will," Chloe assured her with a smile and she turned and walked to the door. "Hey Alex," Chloe called out and she paused with her hand on the knob to turn back. "I hear Italy is beautiful this time of year."

"Italy huh?" Alex asked slowly. Chloe had to know that the second Alex stepped foot on Italian soil they'd probably lock her up and throw away the key, that is if she even managed to make it through customs. "I hear that tensions are pretty high in that region. Maybe now's not really the best time to travel over there."

"I know a guy at Interpol," Chloe shrugged. "He said it shouldn't be a problem." Alex raised an eyebrow and Chloe nodded subtly at her. Chloe had fixed her problem with Interpol. Of course Chloe had fixed her problem with Interpol, that's what Chloe did best.

"Tell your friend I owe him one," Alex smirked as she opened the door. "I'll bring you back a cannoli."

"You know a guy at Interpol?" Peter asked Chloe with a raised eyebrow and she blushed and looked away changing the subject. He had an uneasy feeling her 'guy at Interpol' was probably just Victor, hacking into the system and wiping Alex's record. But since he had no definitive proof of that, he was gonna drop it. They had bigger things to worry about, like Sarah who had just seen what Neal had been working on out on the porch.

"Is that _my _Cellini?" Sara gaped at the sculpture and then looked over to Neal and Peter.

"No," Neal shook his head then smiled. "But…thank you."

"It's a fake." Chloe jumped in, trying to appease her.

"But you're going to convince the Curator that it's real." Neal added.

Sara barked out a laugh but when she saw Neal wasn't joking, she sobered up very quickly. "I'm really not," she said, grabbing her bag and heading for the door but Chloe stepped in her path and stopped her.

"Please just hear us out." Chloe pleaded and something about the look in her eye, the desperation that Sara saw there made it impossible to say no.

"You have ten minutes," Sara sat back down on the edge of the couch and gave Chloe her full attention.

"You've heard of Roman Petrovitch?" Chloe asked.

"Everyone's heard of Roman Petrovitch," Sara snorted, her gaze moving to the image of Petrovitch on one of the monitors.

"On Friday night, he's going to sell 9 people, one of whom is a very very good friend of mine, to the highest bidder." Chloe said and Sara's head snapped back to her. "We need your help to stop it."

"By convincing the Curator at the Met that they have a fake Cellini?" Sara asked and Chloe nodded. "And what exactly made you think I would do this?" Sara asked Peter.

"Because you owe me," Neal pointed out.

"This is Roman Petrovitch," Sara shook her head. "I'm going to need more than that."

"Fine, don't do it for Neal. Do it for your sister." Chloe said, a small snap to her voice.

Sara's whole body went rigid as she turned her attention on Chloe. "What do you know about my sister?" Her voice was even, the anger in her words barely contained.

"I know that she disappeared when you were young. I know that you've been looking for her ever since." Chloe took a step closer, treading as carefully as she dared. "I also know that your sister was very special, that she could do things the other kids couldn't. Things no one should be able to do."

"How can you possibly know that?" Sara asked in a whisper.

"I did my homework," Chloe said simply. "I also know that the day before she disappeared your mom took her to a see the doctor. A specialist, she said. Someone who could fix people like your sister." Sara nodded her head numbly.

"His name is Dr. Cartwright," Oliver said holding out a file to Sara. She took it and flipped it open. "He's been on the Luthor's payroll for over twenty years. Initially his job was to find patients with specific blood anomalies and bring them to Lionel's attention. Your sister wasn't the only one of his patients to go missing."

"I don't understand," Sara looked through the folder slowly. "This man, he has my sister?"

"No," Chloe shook her head. "Not anymore anyway. We've found paperwork that indicates she was one of the subjects being held in this facility," Chloe nodded at Victor who called up an image of a defunct looking compound somewhere in the mountains.

"If we're right, and we usually are, she was held there for a little over two years. After that Cartwright was transferred off the meta project and onto something different. The facility was shut down shortly after that." Victor explained.

"Where is she now?" Sara asked.

"We don't know." Victor shrugged. "From what we've managed to piece together, some of the subjects were terminated and the rest were split up and moved to different facilities-spread all over the world, but we don't know which subjects went where yet."

"Hannah," Sara snapped at him. "She's not a subject, her name was-_is_, Hannah."

"Right, sorry." Victor cringed.

"We don't know where Hannah was sent but we do know that she was sent _somewhere_. She wasn't one of the one of the ones that were terminated." Chloe jumped in. "Look, I've found out more about your sister in the last four hours than the police have found in the last twenty years. Imagine what I could find if I really tried."

"Are you telling me you can find my sister?" Sara asked her.

"I'm telling you that if she's still out there, there is no one else on this planet more qualified to find her than us," Chloe corrected her.

"So, what? If I agree to help you, you'll find my sister?" Sara said. "And if I don't?"

"I'll still find your sister," Chloe said confused. "We're not monsters."

Sara looked down at the file in her hands. Paper clipped in the front of the folder was the picture her mother had given to the police of Hannah and Sara when they were little. "This is all just a little bit overwhelming. I'm going to just need a minute, please," Sara brushed past Chloe and made her way out onto the balcony.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"How the hell did you know about her sister?" Neal turned to Chloe.

"What did you think I've been doing for the past four hours while you were out there playing with your clay?" Chloe nudged his shoulder with hers. "I figured she wasn't going to be too eager to do you a favor, even if she did owe you one, so I thought we might need a bit more incentive."

"Is her sister really a meta?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, I got lucky with that." Chloe shook her head. "I was hoping to find a secret affair or suspicious money transfers. But you know, this works too."

"Can you really find her?" Neal asked.

"If she's still alive, we can find her." Chloe assured them moving to the balcony doors.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Sara closed her eyes and let the wind rush over her, calming her.

"_Sara! Sara! Come quick!" Hannah screamed from down by the edge of the lake. _

_Sara sighed and closed her book setting it beside her on the grass. The frantic tone in her sister's voice didn't worry her, the last couple of times she'd been called like that, Hannah had just wanted to show her a cool rock or a bird's nest. She pulled herself to her feet and walked leisurely down the path to the lake, letting her fingertips skim along the tips of the tall grass. _

"_You better not be in the water, mom said not to get dirty," Sara called ahead of her. She stopped at the water's edge and froze because Hannah was nowhere to be seen. _

"_I'm not in the water," Hannah said and Sara looked up to see her balanced precariously on a limb of the large cherry blossom tree. _

"_Yeah, because being in the tree is so much better," Sara scoffed looking pointedly at the multiple tears in Hannah's dress. _

"_Whatever," Hannah rolled her eyes. "I need to show you something." _

"_Is it another dead frog because I'll pass," Sara looked up. _

_Hannah smiled at her, grabbed the branch above her head and yanked on it, hard. A cascade of cherry blossoms rained down on Sara and she closed her eyes and ducked her head, waiting for them to hit her but they never did. Confused, Sara opened her eyes and gasped. She vaguely heard Hannah drop out of the tree and come to stand next to her._

"_Hannah, what—" Sara stared in front of her in awe, unable to express what she was thinking. The cherry blossoms were frozen in place, hanging in the air all around her, not falling, not moving, not even ruffling in the breeze. _

"_So much better than a dead frog right?" Hannah asked and Sara nodded, reaching out a finger and touching one of the flowers, freeing it from its stasis and sending it floating slowly to the ground. _

"_You did this?" Sara asked her and it was Hannah's turn to nod. "How?" _

"_I have no idea," Hannah told her excitedly. "I was sitting in the tree and my shoe fell off. I reached for it and it just froze, in mid air. I tried it a few more times on sticks and leaves and I just had to show you." _

"_Can you make it stop?" Sara asked and Hannah looked at the flowers and concentrated hard. They all seemed to move at once, continuing their decent to the ground. "Can you do it again?" Sara asked and Hannah laughed and nodded. _

_::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::_

Sara smiled at the memory and heard the sliding glass door open behind her. "Why do you need me?" Sara turned around to look at Chloe. "Why not have Peter bring in the FBI?"

"I can't," Chloe said.

"Why not?" Sara asked.

"The people that he's selling, they're like your sister. Different." Chloe said.

"Meta's," Sara said and Chloe nodded. "Petrovitch is selling them for what they can do?" Chloe nodded again. "And if you bring in the FBI, they'd be obligated to report them to the VRA."

"You see my dilemma," Chloe smiled.

"Your friend, what can he do?" Sara asked. "What's his power?"

"He's fast, really fast." Chloe explained.

"If he's so fast, how did he get caught?" Sara frowned.

"We're still not really clear on that," Chloe admitted. "Though I suspect it's going to be a sore spot for him for a while. And the guys are never gonna let him live it down."

"Hannah could stop time," Sara said. "Sometimes I hated it because she'd use it to cheat when we played games but other times it was just…amazing. I remember the fourth of July, a few months before she disappeared. We were in the park, watching the fireworks and I said I wished that they could last forever, so she froze them for me. She froze everyone and we sat there and stared up at them for what felt like hours, just the two of us in this frozen time."

"That sounds nice," Chloe agreed.

"It was," Sara frowned. "And then one day we were playing tag in the living room and I hit the hall table. My mom's favorite vase went crashing to the floor and Hannah stopped it. Right when Mom walked into the room. The next day she went to the doctor, and the day after that, she was gone." Sara shook her head. "I never even made the connection. I was too young back then to realize and the older I got, the more convinced I was that I'd just imagined all that stuff. That it was just a story I made up, a fairy tale I told myself about my sister, that I made her into this magical being in my head. I convinced myself that it wasn't real, that it couldn't be real."

"It was real," Chloe said.

"Yeah," Sara nodded. "I'd put it so far out of my mind, I'd almost forgotten about it until you mentioned it." She turned to the Cellini, circling the table and studying the piece. "It is really very good," Sara admitted. "And don't ever tell him I said that."

"Your secrets safe with me," Chloe assured her.

Sara stood up straighter as Neal walked out to join them on the balcony. "I'll do it," she told them.

"Thanks," Neal said and she glared at him.

"I'm not doing it for you," she reminded him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Still, thanks." Neal nodded, picking up one of the smaller tools before leaning back over the bust.

"So what's the story with you two anyway?" Chloe asked, her eyes flicking from Sara to Neal then back again.

"He stole a Raphael from a client of mine." Sara told Chloe.

"Allegedly," Neal called out indignantly. "I was never charged or convicted of that."

"You stole it," Sara insisted. "And one day, not only am I going to prove it, but I'm going to get it back." She nodded at Chloe once before walking back into the apartment.

"Wow, she's really serious about that huh?" Chloe asked watching her walk away.

"She's the best in the business," Neal shrugged. "Everything she's gone after she's gotten back. Except for that. It's her white whale." He went back to the sculpture and Chloe stood there watching him for a minute.

"You totally stole it didn't you?" Chloe asked him.

"Oh yeah," Neal nodded and Chloe barked out a laugh. Apparently it was contagious because soon enough Neal found himself laughing too. Sarah and Peter stopped talking and turned to them. Peter looked confused but Sarah narrowed her eyes in suspicion so Neal and Chloe hurriedly turned back to the sculpture.

"Do you still have it?" Chloe asked as Neal carved delicately around the eyes.

Neal paused and looked over at Chloe, slowly dropping the tool to the table top. "Yeah. Why?"

"I think I just found our exit strategy," Chloe told him and Neal was almost positive he wasn't going to like this. "I just need to check something with Moz before I'm sure. Is this thing about ready to be weighted and bronzed?" she nodded at the bust.

"Whenever Victor's ready," Neal nodded.

"Good. Can you run Sara through what she's gotta do tomorrow morning?" Chloe called over her shoulder as she walked back into the apartment.

"Sure," Neal said. "I'm not gonna like this am I?"

"No," Chloe shook her head with a laugh. "In fact I'm pretty sure you're gonna hate it." Yet there was no doubt in Chloe's mind that he would do it anyway.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal handed Sara a mug of fresh coffee and sat down next to her on the couch. "Your job is easy," Neal said as she sipped the coffee. "You just need to make the curator believe that your Cellini is the real one and the one they have on display is a fake."

"You call that easy?" Sara asked him.

"You'll tell them that it was switched out during a robbery," Neal explained.

"But there was no robbery," Sara said.

"No, but we're gonna make him think there was."

"How?" Sara asked Neal and he looked over at Victor, offering him the floor.

"It's actually easy. A few well placed glitches in the security footage and you can make it look like someone looped the feed." Victor said.

"You can't hack the Met," Sara shook her head. "Their system is completely closed circuit."

"Nothing is completely closed circuit," Victor said. "Well, not to me anyway. Trust me I just need to be in the room, the rest will practically take care of itself."

Sara looked at him skeptically but she had no other option but to trust him. "Just make sure the curator puts the Cellini in his office safe and not in the vault."

"What's the matter? You can't get into the vault?" Sara asked.

"I can get into the vault, just not in the time frame we've got."

"Ok, if you say so." Sara took one last sip of her coffee and stood up. "Have the bust ready by 8:00."

"Uh, I'm not sure if…" Neal looked over at Victor, unsure where he stood on figuring out the cuffs.

"Have it ready by 8:00," Sara said firmly and Victor and Neal looked at each other before nodding.

"8:00's perfect." Neal said.

"I should probably get back to work," Victor stood up from the table and walked back over to his work station. Neal smiled after him when Chloe caught his eye. She and Mozzie were standing, their heads were bent together as they studied the papers laid out on the table in front of them.

"How exactly did you get mixed up in all of this?" Sara asked, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Met a girl," Neal smiled, nodding at Chloe. She must have sensed him, because she cut herself off mid sentence and lifted her head, smiling softly back at him. "She asked me steal something for her. After that I was pretty much gone."

"Yeah, that sounds like you," Sara laughed and headed for the door as Chloe made her way over to Neal, in her hands the papers she'd been looking at with Mozzie.

"Hey, how are you with the Impressionists?" Chloe asked waving the papers in front of her face like a fan.

Neal hesitated for a second, glancing around the room to make sure that Peter was not in earshot. "There may or may not be a Degas in the Musee d'Orsay that's actually a Caffrey. Why?"

"How long would it take you to duplicate these?" Chloe handed him the papers and he flipped through them.

"What kind of test would it need to pass?" Neal studied the images.

"Just visual." Chloe said.

"A week-maybe two," Neal handed Chloe back the papers.

"You have less than 12 hours," she said.

"Then I'm gonna need coffee, a lot of coffee." Neal said.

"I'll start a new pot," Chloe turned toward the kitchen and Neal put a hand on her arm.

"Not here, I can't paint here. The atmosphere is to…hectic," he shook his head. "We'll go to June's"

"_We'll_ go to June's?" Chloe asked him. "You need me to hold your brushes for you or something?"

"Of course not, Mozzie normally does that," Neal joked. "But we still need to have that talk," he pointed out.

"Right," Chloe nodded. "The talk."

"Plus, I need you to hold my brushes," Neal nodded over her shoulder at where Mozzie was making a very conspicuous exit from the apartment. "Mozzie appears to be busy."

"He's got to go return the invitation we 'borrowed'. And I asked him to pick up some stuff for me," Chloe explained.

"What stuff?" Neal asked reaching for his hat.

"We should get going," Chloe changed the subject as Neal opened the door.

"Hey," Peter called out, halting their exit and Chloe and Peter stopped as he made his way to them. "Where are you two going?"

"June's," Neal said.

"Why?" Peter asked.

Neal smiled and shrugged. "I honestly don't know."

Peter narrowed his eyes at Neal and turned to Chloe. "I…uh," she glanced at Neal out of the corner of her eye but he was certainly no help. "I plead the 5th?" Chloe asked hopefully and Peter crossed his arms over his chest, not the least bit amused. "What would you say if I told you I could hand you Roman Petrovitch on a silver platter?"

Peter laughed but stopped when Chloe didn't join him. "Wait, you're serious?"

"You said every agency in the world was after this guy. How badly do you want it to be the FBI who finally brings him in, if it's the _White Collar division_ to be the ones who brought down Roman Petrovitch."

"And you can do that?" Peter asked her.

"With sufficient probable cause for you to dig into his life and find more than enough evidence to put him away forever," Chloe said.

Peter thought about it for a minute. It would be big to be the one to take down Roman Petrovitch, not just for the White Collar division but for his career. "Is this, in anyway, legal?" he asked Chloe cautiously.

"Define legal?" Chloe asked him and he closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I don't want to know," Peter shook his head.

"You should go home, get some sleep," Neal clapped Peter on the back. "Sara won't be back until 8 tomorrow."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal unlocked the door to his room and walked in, tossing his keys onto the table. "I'm gonna go get my supplies," he called over his shoulder as Chloe walked in behind him.

She nodded absently as she looked around the room. The other two times she'd been here, she'd been a bit too preoccupied to really get a good look at the place. She imagined during the day the wall of windows leading out the terrace probably flooded the room with natural light and Chloe understood why Neal would want rather paint here.

She walked further into the room and set her bag on the table, taking in the small kitchen area off to the side that Chloe was pretty sure served no actual purpose other than an aesthetic one considering the Neal that she knew wasn't exactly a culinary genius. She wandered over to the seating -area, her eyes raking along the books on the bookshelf, and she crouched down when she saw all the vinyl on the bottom shelves.

Chloe ran her fingers along the spines of the vinyl and her face split into a huge grin as she saw a familiar record. She pulled it out and stood up, looking around for the record player, finally finding it on top of the stove, which only reinforced Chloe's assumption that he never used it.

She slid the record of its case and very carefully placed it on the player, turning it on before positioning the needle and letting it drop. The hiss of the kneeled along the vinyl echoed into the room before a soft guitar started playing and then the gravely tortured voice of Robert Johnson joined in and Chloe closed her eyes and let the music wash over her.

When she opened her eyes she jumped slightly, her hand going to her chest in surprise as she took in the amused face of June standing in the doorway. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to startle you," June stepped further into the room. "I heard the music."

Chloe reached over and turned the music down. "Did we wake you?"

"Don't be silly," June brushed it off and smiled. "You know, the minute Oliver told me that you were going to be his plus one, I instantly thought of Neal and how much I so wanted the two of you to meet. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the two of you had already met."

"It's a long story," Chloe said, unsure of how much exactly June knew about Neal's past.

"Yes, that's what he said," June sat down on the couch and patted the cushion next to her. Chloe took the hint and sat beside her. "He talks about you. A lot." June said. Chloe raised her eyebrow. "Well, I didn't realize it was you at the time but after the other night, now I'm sure there's no one else that it _could_ be." June reached over and brushed a bit of hair off of Chloe's face.

"And I'm sure you must be mistaken," Chloe ducked her head and attempted to stand up but June grabbed her wrist to keep her seated,

"I'm not," June shook her head. "It was you. The one that got away."

"But Kate—"

"Kate was a mistake," June said. "Even _he_ knows that. You can see it on his face when he talks about her. But I always know when he's talking about you. He'll sit there, flipping that pocket watch open and closed and get this far away look in his face and you can tell, in every word that he speaks, how he regrets ever letting you go."

Chloe shook her head because that wasn't right, he didn't let her go, he gave her away. She wanted to tell that to June, wanted to remind Neal of that, tell him that he didn't get to think about her like that after what he did. Then the rest of what June said seemed to push through the fog in Chloe's brain.

"Wait, what pocket watch?" Chloe asked softly and June patted her knee before standing up.

"I believe he keeps it over here," June walked to the fire place at the other end of the room and slid one of the panels of wood to side, revealing a secret compartment. She reached in and smiled, pulling out the pocket watch and holding it out toward Chloe.

Chloe got up and walked across the room slowly until she made it to June, her eyes never leaving the watch. "May I?" Chloe reached out her hand, not realizing it was shaking until June grabbed it, steadying it with hers before dropping it into her palm.

Chloe stared down at the familiar watch and felt tears sting the corner of her eyes. She closed her fist, her fingers tightening around the cold metal. Her knuckles went white with the pressure and she forced herself to take a few deep, calming breaths.

"I take it that watch means something to you," June whispered and Chloe nodded numbly.

"It was my grandfathers, I thought—" Chloe swallowed a sob. "I thought I'd lost it forever." She'd searched for it when she packed up Jimmy's things but she never found it. For a while there she thought maybe he'd gotten rid of it after the divorce out of spite or possibly even fold it for money. She looked back down at the watch, her thumb tracing the _C.S_. engraved on the back for Conner Sullivan.

"He's had that as long as I've known him," June said. "I asked him once why he never wore it and he said that it wasn't his, that he was just holding it for a friend."

"I asked him," Chloe flipped the watch over in her hands. "But it was just a joke, I never really thought—"

"Obviously there are some things that the two of you need to discuss," June patted Chloe on the back and headed for the door, stopping by the record player to turn the music up a bit. "I hope to see you around here more often."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neal carried the blank canvases out from the closet and stacked them up by the fireplace, "I don't know if I have enough supplies here. We might have to go out to stock up." When Chloe didn't comment he looked up confused to see the room empty. Robert Johnson was coming out of the record player and her bag was still on the table so he was pretty sure she hadn't just left. "Chloe?" he called out confused.

"Over here," she said and Neal made his way through the seating area, stopping when he saw Chloe laying sideways across his bed, her head hanging off the side, the tips of her hair touching the ground.

When she saw him standing there she smiled sheepishly. "I found the sweet spot."

Neal walked over to the bed and sat down next to her, ignoring the feelings that were stirring in him at the sight of Chloe spread across his bed. She didn't make a move to sit up and Neal looked down where her hands were splayed across her stomach, her fingers drumming a steady beat along with the music. He paused as a flash of gold caught his eye and dropped his hand on top of Chloe's, sliding his fingers between hers before pulling her hand back.

He stared down at the gold pocket watch resting on her stomach and reached out with his free hand to pick it up. He felt the mattress shift next to him and turned to see that Chloe had pulled herself up. She was propped up on her elbows staring at him.

"Where did you get it?" she asked, reaching out to run the chain through her fingers.

"Jimmy," Neal said.

"When?" Chloe asked him.

"That night," Neal said, dropping the watch back on her stomach. It slid down onto the mattress forgotten as Chloe sat up all the way. "You asked me to steal it for you, so I did." He shrugged, his thumb rubbing softly along the inside of her wrist and Chloe realized he was still holding her hand. She didn't pull it away.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

_Neal walked through the lobby of the hotel, offering Maxwell, the concierge a nod. "Shall I call for your car Mr. Dermott?" Maxwell asked, the phone already halfway up to his ear. _

"_Yes, thank you," Neal said as he passed the front desk and made his way out the front doors. _

"_Of course sir," Maxwell nodded and Neal stepped out into the cool night air. _

_His car pulled up less than a minute later and with one phone call to Mozzie, he had the address to Jimmy's apartment programmed into his GPS. He smiled softly to himself, imagining the look on Chloe's face when she woke up in the morning and he was dangling her grandfather's pocket watch in front of her. He'd probably get thank you sex for something like that. _

_He drove a little faster as he thought about Chloe, tangled up in the bed sheets fast asleep back at the hotel waiting for him and as much as he wanted to be up there with her right now, he was grateful for this time to take a breath and think about what had just happened. _

_He was 99% sure that he was falling madly, deeply, head over heels in love with Chloe. It had probably been happing without him even realizing it for quite some time now but he'd ignored. Partly because he'd had Kate and she had Jimmy, but mainly because the very thought of it scared him more than anything had ever scared him before. _

_Chloe was unlike anyone he'd ever met in his life. She was a genuinely a good person, and yet at the same time she was just a little bit crooked. She had no problems bending the rules or flat out breaking the law, if she thought that it needed to be done, if she thought it would help her friends. That was evident the first time he met her. She'd asked him to steal from Lex Luther, but she'd done it for a good reason, not for herself, but for someone else. _

_It didn't take long after that initial meeting to realize that once Chloe became invested in a relationship, in another person, she was all in. She was in for the good and she was in for the bad. If you were lucky enough to be counted among those that she called her friends, you knew that she was fiercely loyal and she would lay down her life for yours in a second if she had to. And god help you if you tried to hurt someone she loved._

_Neal had never had a person like that in his life. A person that knew exactly who he was and didn't care, who loved him anyway. He'd thought at one time that Kate was that person but he'd been wrong. Kate loved an idea of Neal, a version of Neal that she'd imagined in her head, not the real him. And part of that was his fault. She'd fallen in love with Nick Halden and she'd tried to reconcile him with Neal Caffrey and she'd done the best she could but there was a part of her that would never let go of Nick and that part could never fully accept Neal. _

_But Chloe knew him, knew who he was before she even met him. She never tried to change and him, never tried to make him into someone different. She just accepted him for him. And somehow with Chloe, he'd been more himself than he'd ever been with anyone else, shown her more of the real Neal Caffrey than Moz or Kate ever got to see. _

_That's why the thought of loving her was so terrifying. She knew him better than anyone ever had and that made him vulnerable. If she rejected him, she was rejecting the real him, not Nick Halden, not the version of Neal Caffrey that he showed to the rest of the world, she was rejecting him. And if that happened, Neal wasn't sure he'd be able to handle that. _

_But last night, she hadn't rejected him. She'd asked him to catch her, she wanted him just as much as he wanted her and now there was no Kate and there was no Jimmy to get in the way. It was just the two of them and the rush he got off of the prospect of having Chloe in his life, permanently was greater than any rush any con could ever give him. _

_::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::_

_Neal parked a few blocks away from the apartment building and was contemplating the best way in. He figured that Jimmy was probably still at the wedding reception and he be there for a while longer, which left Neal free to get in and out with him none the wiser. He could go through the front and just pick the lock, but he had no idea what the security was like in this place. There was no doorman but that didn't rule out security cameras or nosey neighbors. The answer was obvious then; the fire escape. _

_Most apartment buildings were all set up in the same style, with the even numbered units on the right and the odd numbered ones on the left, going front to back. Neal counted the windows along the left side of the building until he found Jimmy's and jumped up, grabbing the bottom rung of the fire escape ladder and pulling himself up. He climbed up the six flights and stopped. Most people, regardless of what floor they were on, always locked the fire escape window, but as long as they were high enough off the ground, felt safe enough to leave all the other's unlocked. _

_Neal looked to his left and saw a slightly smaller window, most likely leading into a bathroom, not just unlocked, but left wide open, practically begging him to come inside. There was a drainage pipe between the fire escape and the window ledge, just close enough that he could reach it if he stretched and he pulled himself slowly across the outside of the building, first to the drainage pipe, then to the open window. _

_He smiled smugly as he lowered his feet to the tiled bathroom floor. That had taken him less than three minutes, a personal best. He walked through the bathroom, making sure that he didn't leave any tell tale footprints in his wake and stepped out into Jimmy's apartment. _

_A building this old, in this neighborhood was going to outfit their units with wall safes and generally a person who could only afford so much in rent wasn't going to have anything that valuable to hide in the first place, so Neal zeroed in on the most common hiding places. _

_He checked the freezer first, found a wad of emergency cash in the ice maker but left it where it was. The point of this was to make it seem as if no one had been there and a couple hundred missing dollars would certainly raise questions. He moved onto the closet and then under the bed but it wasn't until he was digging around in the back of Jimmy's sock drawer that he hit pay dirt. _

_Neal smiled in triumph as he pulled the gold pocket watch out, catching the deeply engraved C.S. in the back before dropping it in his pocket. He was about to close the drawer and make his way back out the way he came in when the corner of something caught his eye. He paused, pushing a few pairs of socks out of the way to find a stack of photographs. _

_People didn't hide photographs under a pile of socks in the back of a drawer unless they wanted to make sure no one else ever saw them. Neal couldn't say he wasn't curious as to what a guy like Jimmy Olsen was hiding. The answer was obvious once Neal got a good look at the picture on top of the stack. _

_Neal had figured they be pictures of Chloe and he was right, but it wasn't a sweet memento; a shot of the two of them on a park bench or something. She was spread across the bed, wearing a lacy little black corset type thing, a garter belt, thigh highs, and red heals. Her hair was teased and tousled and she was giving the camera a soft, sultry look. Neal flipped through the rest of the pictures and with ever new shot she seemed to be wearing less and less clothing until finally she was lying there in nothing but the heals. The red heals. The same red heals that she'd been wearing the first time they met. _

_The thought of Jimmy seeing Chloe like that, seeing Chloe at all made Neal want to growl again. "And I'll be taking these too," Neal said quietly to himself as he slipped the pictures in his pocket. _

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"So that's where you went?" Chloe asked, her voice barely a whisper as she looked up at him through her lashes. "You didn't go to Lex?"

"What? No. Why would I have gone to Lex?" Neal frowned and grabbed Chloe's chin, forcing her to look up at him.

"I just, I thought…" Chloe stared at him, her eyes searching for something in his face. "I thought, oh hell it doesn't even matter anymore." She pushed herself forward, surprising Neal as her lips met his.

Neal's hand moved from her chin to cup her cheek, his fingers sliding into the hair at her neck as he pulled her closer. She whimpered low in her throat and Neal scooted closer, dropping her hand so he could grab her hip. He felt her tongue tease the edge of his lips and he opened his mouth for her.

Neal would never understand how he could have missed something so much that he only really had once, but he did miss it, so much. Chloe pulled away and he barely managed to stop himself from whimpering at the loss of her.

"I missed you," Chloe whispered against his lips, as if she'd been reading his mind. "I tried not to. I thought if I could stay mad at you I wouldn't miss you but it didn't work."

"Mad at me?" Neal asked confused but she didn't answer, just leaned in again, practically devouring him.

Her hands slid up his chest to wrap around his neck as she pushed herself up on her knees. Neal followed her lead, sliding further up onto the mattress as she leaned back, taking him with her.

"Wait," Chloe asked, pulling away. "Do you still have the pictures?" She blushed slightly when she thought about them. Lana had talked her into taking them one night after one too many glasses of wine and she'd completely forgotten that Jimmy even had them.

Neal's eyes darted quickly to the mantel, more specifically to the hidden compartment that June had gotten the watch from. Chloe just laughed and leaned forward kissing him again, harder, more urgently this time and Neal certainly wasn't going to complain.

He knew they had a lot of work to do, they certainly had a lot to talk about but as her hands slid back down his chest, pulling his shirt from his pants he stopped caring and just let himself have this. This moment here and now.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Peter yawned as he made his way down the hall to Chloe's apartment. It was just barely six a.m. but he'd already been awake for a few hours. Something had been bothering him all night long and he finally gave up on sleep, showered, dressed, dropped a kiss to Elizabeth's forehead and headed for Chloe's. He hadn't expected anyone else to be awake but he was buzzed in barely a minute after pushing the button.

When he walked into the apartment he was somehow completely unsurprised to find Mozzie sitting at the table, putting the finishing touches on the newly bronzed bust of Medusa. "It looks good," Peter bent closer to inspect Neal's work. "Really good."

"It'll pass a visual inspection but not much else," Mozzie said. "Then again that's all we really need it for isn't it?"

"Are you the only one here?" Peter frowned.

"Victor and AC are out," Mozzie said walking to the kitchen to freshen up his coffee. "Keeping an eye on the building where they're holding Bart."

Peter frowned. That seemed kind of pointless to him. They knew where Bart was for now and they knew where he was going to be later. Though he supposed it was better than doing nothing. Mozzie grabbed another cup from the cabinet and filled it up, passing it to Peter.

"Chloe? Neal?" Peter asked taking a long sip of the hot liquid.

Mozzie paused, as if debating whether or not to even answer that question. "Still at June's I presume."

"Both of them?" Peter asked. "Together?" Mozzie nodded and Peter sighed. This is what he'd been afraid of.

"Actually I'm supposed to meet them over there," Mozzie said after catching a glimpse at the clock on the wall. He grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair and headed for the door.

"Is Oliver here yet?" Peter called out to him..

"He's up on the roof, practicing," Mozzie called out as the door shut behind him. Peter frowned. What on earth could he be practicing up on the roof at six in the morning?

When he stepped out in the slightly chilly morning air, that question was answered for him as an arrow flew past him, less than an inch from his face. He turned to his right to see Oliver lowering a long bow to his side, a smirk on his face. When he turned to his left it was easy to see why. The arrow had landed dead center. Bulls eye.

"Special Agent Burke," Oliver said, calling Peter's attention back to him as he loaded up another arrow. "What can I do for you?" Oliver raised the bow and took careful aim, concentrated on his breathing and then released, sending the arrow flying across the roof to land no more than a quarter of an inch to the left of the first one.

"Are you allowed to do that up here?" Peter asked him.

"I have a permit," Oliver shrugged and Peter looked surprised. Oliver didn't bother to tell him that said permit was only good in Metropolis. "I'm pretty sure you didn't come up here to talk to me about my target practice though, so what can I do for you?" Oliver asked again.

"Chloe Sullivan," Peter said walking over to Oliver's side and out of his line of fire. "Tell me about her." Oliver paused, another arrow slotted into place but the string still hanging loosely on the bow. "Neal has a tendency to…idealize the woman in his life first Kate then Alex. He turns them into this perfect fantasy that they can never live up to. The way he talks about Chloe - the way he's _always_ talked about Chloe - I just need to know how much of that is real and how much is just…wishful thinking."

Oliver lifted the bow, weighing his words just as carefully as he set up his shot. "You know she stole over a billion dollars from me once?" He released the arrow, slotting it neatly into place on the right of the other two.

"She—a _billion_ dollars?" Peter asked and Oliver chuckled, finally being able to laugh about that now. Though at the time it was hardly funny.

"She's paying me back," he shrugged, not offering any more information than that. Peter wondered what kind of relationship the two of them could have where stealing a billion dollars was just a funny thing that happened one time.

"I don't understand," Peter said truthfully.

"I know," Oliver shrugged. "You can't. Chloe and I—she's pulled me out of holes so deep and so dark that I never thought I'd see the light of day again. She believed in me so much she was willing to risk everything just to get me to believe in myself."

"Sounds like a good friend to have in your corner," Peter mused.

"She is. The best." Oliver grabbed another arrow. "That being said, Chloe's far from perfect. Trust me. She's made her share of mistakes."

"Like stealing a billion dollars," Peter interjected.

"Among other things. Things that a normal person might never have been able to come back from."

"Things like Davis Bloome," Peter said and Oliver dropped the bow to his side and turned back to Peter. Peter just knew there had to have been more to the story than what was in the file.

Oliver set the bow down and turned to Peter, investing himself fully in the conversation. "Davis wasn't her finest hour. She meant well." Oliver offered as if that sentiment had made any of them feel better about the whole debacle.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," Peter challenged and Oliver snorted.

"Nothing can excuse what she did. She knows that and I know that." Oliver said. "She made the wrong decision. She made a lot of wrong decisions. You say that Neal has a tendency to idealize the people in his life? It's no wonder they get along so well because that sounds dangerously like Chloe to me. She has so much faith, in _everyone_. She's willing to believe that there's good in everyone. Sometimes that belief gets her into trouble. It did with Lex, it definitely did with Lionel." Oliver shook his head.

"And then, there was Neal and she thought he was different, she really did. So when everything went down between them, it really screwed her up. I think that's why she was so blind when it came to Davis. It was like Neal had broken her and she couldn't see what was happening right in front of her face. Or maybe she just couldn't admit that she been so wrong about somebody again."

"She put her faith in the wrong person and as a result her husband, _a very good man_, was killed. She won't be making the mistake again." Oliver grabbed the bow from where he'd dropped it. "Which is sad in a way really."

"How?" Peter asked confused.

"When Chloe believes in you, it makes you feel like you can do anything," Oliver let the arrow go. "Like you're invincible. I feel sorry for the people who will never get to feel that."

They were silent for a while, watching the sun-rise over the city before Peter turned to Oliver. "You don't like Neal very much do you?" Peter asked and Oliver snorted, considering that to be the understatement of the century.

"He's a con man and a thief and grifter." Oliver pointed out. "I don't _trust_ him."

"It's more than that," Peter shook his head unconvinced. "What did he do to Chloe that makes you hate him so much?"

Oliver studied Peter for a second in confusion. "You really don't know do you?"

"Know what?" Peter asked exasperated.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe tried to open her eyes but the sun streaming through the windows was too bright. She blinked a few times, bringing a heavy hand up to shield herself from the light. When her eyes finally adjusted she sat up all the way, keeping the sheet wrapped tightly around her chest.

The first thing she saw were the paintings, eight of them, lined up against the window to dry. They were perfect; the color, the movement, the play on light and shadow. But she expected nothing less from Neal Caffrey. He was standing in front of the easel, shirtless, with just a pair of pajama bottoms hanging loosely from his hips, his bare feet padding softly on the wood floors. He stepped back and studied the canvas, a stern look on his face as he shoved his fingers through his hair and let out a breath before going back to the painting.

Chloe swallowed hard, remembered running her own fingers through his hair the night before. Remembered holding on tight and pulling as his lips trailed down her neck. Her body ached and she still wanted nothing more than to call him back into the bed and stay there with him for a week. Then she looked at the paintings and remembered Bart and how she had a job to do and that what she wanted needed to be put on the back burner, for now at least.

Chloe reached out and grabbed Neal's shirt that was hanging off the edge of the bed, slipping it on and buttoning a few of the buttons before padding across the room and pulling herself up onto the table to watch him work better.

"Did you sleep at all?" Chloe asked pulling her hair off of her neck.

"About an hour." Neal stepped back and surveyed the painting one more time. Satisfied with his work he walked over to the table, stopping in front of Chloe. She smiled sleepily up at him and opened her knees, allowing him to step in between her legs as he reached behind her for a rag.

"What time is it?" she asked as he whipped his hands.

"A little after six," Neal dropped the rag back to the table but didn't move.

"You shouldn't have let me sleep so long," Chloe sighed.

"I didn't have the heart to wake you," Neal shrugged and leaned down to kiss her. Chloe hesitated for no more than a second until she felt his breath on her lips and then she was leaning forward closing the distance between the two of them and sliding her lips softly along his. Her hands lifted up to cup his cheek, tilting his head slightly to the side to allow Chloe better access. He moaned low in the back of his throat as her fingers trailed down his bare chest to settle on his hips before pulling him closer.

His fingers found the buttons on her shirt and just as he popped the first one Chloe pulled away, pushing against his chest until he took a step back to stare down at her confused, his breathing ragged and uneven. "Wait Neal," Chloe said softly. "We need to talk before this goes any further. We should have talked last night but—"

Neal nodded. She didn't have to explain, he understood all too well. Being together again after all those years, being able to hold Chloe in his arms again had felt too good to risk losing it all over again. "I understand," he assured her. "There's uh…coffee and croissants on the balcony." He turned away from her and grabbed his undershirt off the back of the chair as Chloe slid off the edge of the table and made her way outside.

He sat across from her as she poured out two cups of coffee and picked absently at the edge of one of the pastries. "Last night, you asked me if I went to see Lex," Neal prodded. "Why?"

"I guess I should start at the beginning huh?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Seven Years Ago…**

Chloe was pulled out of a very deep sleep when the theme song to the Six Million Dollar Man rang out in the still hotel room. The sound was muffled but definitely the ringtone that Bart had jokingly assigned for Victor on Chloe's phone. Her internal clock was telling her that it was barely four in the morning so she turned her head, ignoring the ringing in favor of just a few more hours of sleep. Whatever it was could wait until the sun was actually up.

The ringing stopped and she stretched, her body aching in all the right places as she let out a contented sigh. Her hand slid over the mattress, her fingers searching for the smooth warmth of Neal's body. When she found only cool crisp sheets she opened her eyes confused. Neal's side of the bed was empty.

"Neal?" Chloe called out. She was greeted with silence.

"He's gone," A voice said from the other side of the room and Chloe shot up in the bed and spun around, clutching the sheet to her chest.

"Kate?" Chloe squinted, beyond surprised to find the other woman leaning casually against the dresser opposite the bed. "What are you doing here?" Chloe pulled the sheet tighter around her as she scanned the room looking for her clothes. "Where's Neal?"

"Long gone by now I'm sure," Kate pushed off the dresser and smiled down at Chloe.

"What does that mean?" Chloe frowned, wrapping herself fully in the sheet as she climbed off the bed. She bent to grab her underwear off the floor and looked around for her bra.

"It means he did what he came here to do and now he's gone," Kate shrugged. "You know how he is, he doesn't like to stick around once a job is over."

"What job?" Chloe asked uneasily.

"You," Kate said simply. She leaned down and picked up Chloe's bra, holding it out to her with a smirk on her face.

"Me?" Chloe asked, snatching the bra from Kate before turning and walking into the bathroom to get dressed. "I don't understand."

"When he told me all those years ago that one day you would be worth something, I didn't realize he meant it so literally." Kate called and Chloe's hands were shaking as she pulled her bra and underwear on.

She dressed herself in her clothes from the day before and took a deep breath before walking back out into the room so she could face Kate on more equal footing this time. "And how much am I worth exactly?" she was proud that her voice wasn't shaking, thought she feared her legs would give out any minute.

"A small fortune if the legend is true," Kate said. "Lex knows who has the music box and he's willing to share that information with us in exchange for…well…you."

"I don't understand," Chloe closed her eyes, none of this made any sense.

"Neither do I," Kate shrugged. "I just did what Neal told me to do."

"And what exactly did Neal tell you to do?" Chloe whispered, dreading the answer.

"He told me to go to Lex and propose a trade while he…" Kate looked at the rumpled bed and then back at Chloe, "Distracted you."

"No," Chloe shook her head, the champagne and canapés from the night before threatening to claw their way back up her throat. "No, he wouldn't do that." Chloe collapsed down onto the edge of the mattress.

"He would," Kate tilted her head, looking down at Chloe with pity. "He's a thief and a con-man. It's what he does. Hell, it's who he is. He'd hand over his own mother if he thought it would help him take in a big score."

"I don't believe you," Chloe whispered.

"You really don't do you?" Kate asked tilting her head sideways. "You actually…trusted him. Oh honey." Kate reached out to put a comforting hand on her shoulder and Chloe jerked away from her.

Standing up suddenly, Chloe started digging through the stuff on the floor looking for her phone. If she called Neal, if she could just talk to him, straighten this out it would be ok.

"Is it true? What he said you can do?" Kate asked nonchalantly. "That you're some kind of freak who can heal people?"

"How do you—" Chloe froze and turned around, her heart lodging itself firmly in her throat.

"Oh God," Kate shook her head. "When Neal told me to say that to Lex, I thought it was just something he'd made up. I mean everyone knows how obsessed Lex is with the weird and unexplained." Kate shook her head. "But it's true?"

Chloe nodded numbly. "And now Lex knows," she whispered as Victor's ringtone start up again.

"You should probably get that," Kate nodded in the vague direction of a pile of sheets where the ringing was coming from before walking to the door.

By the time Chloe managed to extricate her phone the ringing had stopped. Her screen proclaimed she had 19 missed calls. All from Victor. All in the past hour. "Shit," Chloe said, fumbling slightly with the phone as she called him back.

"What the hell are you doing at The Palace?" he asked annoyed, barely letting the phone ring once before picking it up. Chloe was taken aback for a second at the urgency in his voice and her own words died on her tongue. "Never mind, it doesn't matter, you need to leave. An hour ago the DDS put out a warrant for your arrest." Victor told her.

Chloe paled. "On what charges?" she asked him, already knowing the answer.

"17 counts of illegally hacking into secure government websites, theft of top secret information, suspected aiding of terrorist organizations—the list goes on and on."

"Shit," Chloe whispered, putting all the pieces together. She'd always suspected that Lex had been behind the DDS' sudden interest and just as sudden disinterest in her the year before. He'd always gotten someone else to do his dirty work for him and if he could get the DDS to publically arrest her, then her disappearance wouldn't be questioned.

"Chloe!" Victor snapped. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah I'm here," Chloe took a deep breath.

"Look, you need to get out of there now." Victor said again.

"No one knows I'm here," Chloe said dumbly. She hadn't even told Lois where she was going. She assumed Victor only knew because he'd tracked her phone, and the only reason he could do that was because she'd told him how. The DDS didn't have the technology to find her though. Of that she was relatively assured. Unless Neal had told Lex—she stopped herself, she couldn't believe that, not now.

"They do," Victor said. "I don't know how they do but they do. They requested back-up from the local PD to meet them at the hotel. They'll be there in five minutes, maybe less depending on response time. What can I do Chloe?" Victor asked her. "Tell me what you want me to do."

Chloe stopped, took a deep breath, and gathered her thoughts. "Nothing," she finally told him.

"What?" Victor asked confused.

"You do nothing," Chloe told him. "I'm serious Victor. I've got to do this on my own. I can't have anything that might trace back to you or Oliver."

"How am I supposed to just sit back and do nothing?" Victor asked.

"I'll be fine ok. I can take care of myself. I'll try and contact you when it's safe." She hung up the phone before he could protest and immediately dialed Oliver's number. It went straight to voice-mail just like she thought it would at 4 in the morning.

"Oliver, Victor's probably already calling you but I need you to trust me. Leave this alone. Let me take care of it on my own. If they get to you through me, if anything happened to any of you because of me, I'd never forgive myself and you know it. I'm more than capable of handling this situation so just let me do it my way. I'll be in touch." She hung up the phone, hoping that Oliver would trust her enough to let her do this on her own terms.

She checked her watch and sighed. She had less than two minutes based on normal Metropolis PD response time. She forced herself take a deep breath, grabbed her bag and shoved only what she needed into it before stepped out of the hotel room.

She took the back stairs just to be safe and threw open the door when she got to the ground floor only to find herself face to face with Maxwell the concierge. "Miss Bonnet," he smiled up at her, unsurprised to see her sneaking out the back. "There were some gentlemen at the front desk looking for you." Chloe's heart dropped and all she could hear was her own breathing. "I sent them around the side, as not to disturb the other guests."

Chloe felt a genuine smile light up her face and she couldn't help but reach out and grab the older man's face with both hands, dropping a sloppy kiss on his lips.

"You are magnificent you know that?" Chloe asked him and he coughed, slightly uncomfortably. Maxwell had always taken care of Chloe, ever since she and Neal started coming here.

"Just doing my job," he replied. "I believe you'll find a clear exit through the kitchen."

"Thank you," Chloe said sincerely before she turned and headed in that direction. "Maxwell," Chloe stopped and turned. "Have you seen Neal?"

"Mr. Dermott left the hotel about an hour ago," Maxwell told her.

"Did he…he didn't happen to leave a message? Say where he was going?" Chloe asked hopefully.

"No ma'am," Maxwell shook his head. "Is there a message you like me to relay to him when he returns?"

Chloe swallowed hard, thinking it over. She didn't want to believe that Neal would turn on her, but as much as she tried to deny it, there was a part of her that had to admit maybe it wasn't totally out of the realm of possibility. And as much as she wanted to trust him, she just couldn't take that big of a chance right now. Not with so much on the line.

"No," Chloe shook her head. "No message."

Chloe offered him one last smile before slipping down the back hallway and off toward the kitchen. First thing first, she needed to get out of town, fast. Ideally she needed to get out of the country. But for that she needed papers. Under normal circumstances she could handle that on her own, but these were hardly normal circumstances and without Victor and Oliver or access to the Watchtower she was dead in the water. Mozzie could get her the papers no problem but she couldn't be sure he wouldn't tell Neal.

A thought occurred to Chloe and she pulled her phone out, hesitating only a second before dialing a new number. She stood in the parking garage and looked around. No way she could take her car. Her license plate would get flagged in two seconds flat. She cringed as she dug around her bag for her tablet and figured it wouldn't make much of a difference to add grand theft auto to her laundry list of crimes at this point.

"Hello?" a confused female voice asked as Chloe surveyed the possible vehicles laid out in front of her and decided the Prius was her best option. She turned on the tablet and started typing.

"Alex, remember that favor you owe me?" Chloe asked as she deftly hacked into the car's security system and cloned the remote entry signal, feeding it back out to the car. The door locks popped up and Chloe smiled. "I'm gonna need to cash that in." Chloe slid behind the wheel of the Prius and crossed her fingers quickly before punching the start button, sighing in relief when the car roared to life.

"What do you need?" Alex asked.

"Papers. An ID, passport, the whole deal. I need them quick and I need them flawless." Chloe explained backing out of the parking garage slowly.

"When and where do you need them delivered?" Alex asked.

Chloe thought about that. The smartest thing to do was to take one of the many alias' she had on her, drive straight to the airport and get the first flight out to anywhere. The DDS would eventually be able to trace it, but at least it would get her out of the city, out from under their noses and give her a few hours breathing room. But she couldn't do that. There were things at the Talon apartment that she couldn't risk the DDS getting their hands on. Things that could jeopardize Oliver and the guys.

"I'll be at the Kansas City International Airport in four hours," Chloe told her. "I want the papers along with a ticket on the first International Flight out waiting at the information desk."

"Sure thing," Alex said, acting as if this request was just an ordinary day for her.

"And Alex," Chloe said, biting her lip. "If Neal calls you…if he asks you—"

"I don't know anything," Alex said so Chloe didn't have to. "Look, I don't know what's going on between you and Neal and I really don't want to know but if I know Neal like I think I do, he's not just gonna leave it at that."

"I know," Chloe sighed and hung up the phone. Never for a second did she doubt that those papers would be waiting for her, just as she asked.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The drive from Metropolis to Smallville felt like it took a lot longer than normal. Then again Chloe was very careful to keep herself right at the speed limit. The last thing she needed was to get pulled over for speeding. She parked the stolen Prius around the back of the Talon and let herself in through the alleyway door.

It took less than five minutes to grab what she needed, stuff a bag with some underwear and clean clothes and stash the incriminating evidence under a floor panel in the freezer at the Talon, a hiding place Chloe created about a month after she moved in. She was on her way out when she heard a chair squeak across the Talon floor.

"Hello?" a voice called out through the darkness and Chloe relaxed slightly when she realized it was Jimmy. She stepped out of the shadow of the doorway and he stood up.

"Jimmy, what are you doing here?" Chloe asked, pushing past him toward the door, hoping that he would get the hint she really didn't have time to talk.

"I needed to see you," Jimmy said, stepping in her way, blocking her path.

"Now's not really a good time," Chloe tried to step past him but he moved with her.

"Who was that guy last night?" Jimmy asked.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "I really don't have time for this," Chloe told him faking left. Jimmy fell for it and she stepped quickly to the right and around him. He reached out and grabbed her elbow, spinning her back around to face him.

"Wait, I'm sorry that's not—it's just seeing you, with him last night-you were wrong. I don't miss the relationship. I miss you."

"We've been over this Jimmy," Chloe sighed in frustration.

"Marry me," Jimmy said suddenly.

"What?" Chloe took a startled step back.

"Marry me," Jimmy said again. "I realized last night I couldn't imagine my life without you in it, I don't want a life without you in it. I know we had our problems and there are things we need to work through but when we were good, we were really good. I want to try again. I love you Chloe." Jimmy let go of her arm and dropped down to one knee and all Chloe could do was stare down at him. It was like a train wreck, she just couldn't look away. "Marry me."

"Jimmy I—"

The doors to the Talon burst open and a flood of black clad SWAT guys swarmed into the room, surrounding Jimmy and Chloe in seconds. Jimmy jumped to his feet in surprise, moving to stand in front of Chloe as if that would somehow shield her.

"Hands in the air!" one of the men screamed and Chloe and Jimmy complied instantly as a familiar face pushed her way through the crowd until she was standing right in front of them.

"Chloe Sullivan," she smiled and Chloe swallowed hard.

"Agent Weber," Chloe nodded at the other woman. She couldn't help but remember the last time they met, the pain torture that Weber put Chloe through to get to the truth.

"You're under arrest," Weber stepped forward, a sick smile on her face as she grabbed Chloe's wrists and yanked them painfully behind her back. "You have the right to remain silent."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

It had been two days since Chloe had been shoved into a windowless 5x5 foot cell, in an undisclosed location and left there. Among her many alleged crimes were multiple counts of terrorism which automatically deprived her of most of her rights. She had no right to a phone call, she had no right to an attorney, she basically had no rights at all. Theoretically they could leave her in that room to rot and be totally well within their rights. She was actually starting to worry about the very real possibility of that happening when the door opened and light flooded her vision for the first time in 48 hours.

Chloe blinked rapidly, the light stinging her eyes as she was grabbed by the arm and dragged from the cell. Her vision slowly started to adjust to the brightness and she was herded along a hallway and into another room. This one was bigger than the last but not by much. There was a long table in the middle with a chair on either side. It didn't take a genius to figure out it was an interrogation room. The guard shoved her down into one of the chairs then shackled her wrists to the bar on the table before leaving her in the room on her own.

After three more hours the door opened again and Agent Weber walked in with a file in her hands. She didn't look at Chloe, didn't acknowledge her in any way, just pulled out the chair opposite her, sat down and opened the file.

When it didn't look like Weber was going to be talking anytime soon Chloe took the initiative.

"I'm not a terrorist," Chloe said. Her voice cracked a bit, her throat dry and scratchy from lack of water.

Weber looked up, almost surprised to see Chloe sitting there and leaned back in her seat. "You're not?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest. "Because I've got mountains of evidence that says you are."

Chloe licked her lips and glanced at the file, unsure of what evidence exactly Weber had and not wanting to tip her hand. "You don't understand."

"So make me understand," Weber said.

Chloe opened her mouth then closed it again. Because she couldn't explain. Whatever Weber had on Chloe or thought she had on Chloe there was no way she was going to turn on Oliver or Bart or Victor or any of them. "I can't," Chloe said and Weber huffed as if Chloe had just confirmed something she suspected all along.

"I didn't think you could," Weber shook her head. "I've got enough evidence here to lock you away for several lifetimes and throw away the key."

"So do it then," Chloe snapped, her irritation finally getting the best of her.

"Oh believe me I'd love to, but my bosses seem to think that you're something special and that you could actually be useful," Weber said. "Tell me about the meteor rocks."

Chloe swallowed hard. "I don't…I don't know what you're talking about." Weber narrowed her eyes at Chloe but she didn't budge.

"Fine, I'll tell you about the meteor rocks." Weber said. "They came down in the Smallville meteor shower of 1989. The whole town's lousy with them. Supposedly, prolonged exposure can alter a person's DNA, give them…abilities."

"Sounds like science fiction novel," Chloe tried to laugh but Weber already knew too much.

"Does, doesn't it?" Weber said reaching into the file and pulling out a piece of paper before sliding it across the table to Chloe. "So does dying and coming back to life."

Chloe looked down and she could have sworn her heart stopped beating for a second. It was a copy of her death certificate, her first one, the one she thought she'd destroyed. "You got rid of the original but the Coroner faxed a copy of it to the police so they could notify your next of kin."

"That was just a misunderstanding," Chloe stuttered.

"I've talked to the paramedics who pulled you out of the damn, I've talked to the ER doctor and the Coroner and the Coroner's assistant. They all say the same thing. You were dead. Your body was cold. And yet here you are." Weber said. "What was it like? Waking up naked on a steel slab, locked in a morgue drawer?"

Chloe closed her eyes as the memories of that day enveloped her. Gasping for breath, terrified out of her mind as her fingers scraped the steel walls of the small room, desperately trying to get out. When she opened her eyes, Weber was smiling at her in triumph.

"There are more of you out there, freaks with these powers and from what we've seen, most of them are not using those powers for good," Weber said.

"What do you want from me?" Chloe asked, knowing she'd been defeated.

"Help us," Weber said. "Help us learn more about this, learn more about how it works, what these rocks do and how to stop these guys before they hurt anyone else."

"And what do I get?" Chloe asked.

"A reduced sentence," Weber said as though the words were actually painful. It was obvious this deal was not her idea. "We'd move you to another facility. You'd get a bed, yard time. All you'd have to do is submit to a few tests, agree to help us, tell us what we want to know."

Chloe felt her insides go cold. A facility. Tests. She'd been waiting for this since the moment she got here but the realization still cut like a knife.

"How long have you been working for Lex?" Chloe asked Weber, sliding back in her chair. Weber stiffened.

"I do not work for Lex," Weber growled.

"Right," Chloe snorted. "You just slip him the occasional criminal for his little facility so he can play Dr. Frankenstein."

"His work is important," Weber protested. "There are people out there, bad people with powers we'd never have been able to combat if it hadn't been for Lex. He's saving lives."

"Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night?" Chloe tilted her head as Weber's jaw clenched. "Have you ever been there?" Chloe asked. "To one of his facilities? Because I have. He tortures people. He experiments on them. I barely made it out alive the first time, I doubt I'd be as lucky the second time. So thanks but no thanks."

"I'm sorry?" Weber asked.

"I'm declining the deal," Chloe held out her hands. She swallowed as Weber stared at her. She knew that declining the deal would likely mean she'd spend the rest of her life in that 5x5 cell but she had no other choice. Going to Lex's wasn't an option. There was a chance if she was there that Oliver and the guys could find her and get her out. But she couldn't guarantee they'd get to her before Lex used whatever means necessary to get information out of her that he could never have.

"I don't think you understand," Weber said. "Declining the deal isn't really an option. You're going to the facility. You're going to help us. You're going to tell us what we need to know, whether you want to or not." Weber stood up and walked over to Chloe leaning down to whisper in her ear. "And I'm going to sleep just fine at night knowing you're exactly where you should be."

"You can't trust him you know," Chloe said just as Weber reached for the door. "The only thing Lex cares about, the only thing Lex has _ever_ cared about is himself. He's helping you for the moment but the second, the _second_, you are no longer useful to him, he's going to leave you to clean up his mess."

Instead of getting upset or indignant Weber just laughed. Chloe sat frozen, confused as Weber continued to laugh until she had to stop to take a breath. "You. _You_ really want to lecture me about trust?"

"What's so funny about that?" Chloe asked.

"Neal Caffery." Weber said and Chloe swallowed hard. Suddenly all the thoughts she'd been forcing herself not to think for the past three days suddenly came crashing back. She shook her head, unwilling and unable to deal with them at the moment. "Who do you think gave us what we needed to arrest you?" Weber said smugly. "I'm not an idiot Ms. Sullivan. I see Lex for who he really is. But you couldn't even see the truth in Neal when he was lying to your face."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

One Month Later:

Chloe grunted. Her jaw clenched, her back arched, and her muscles tightened painfully as over 50,000 volts of electricity surged through her body. The current stopped and she collapsed back onto the hard steel gurney.

"I know what you're going to say. He's a con man," Chloe panted as her head tilted to the side. "And a leopard doesn't change his spots. But it was different with me. _He_ was different with me. You know?"

Ray, standing stiffly in his lab coat, hand hovering over the controls, simply offered her an annoyed glance over his shoulder before writing something on his clipboard. "Andrew knows what I'm talking about." Chloe turned her head to the man standing on the other side of her.

"Maybe he just wanted you to think it was different with you," Andrew said before looking at Ray. "Another 10,000 maybe." Ray nodded, adjusting a dial, and then flipped a switch.

Chloe screamed out in pain this time, unable to help herself. Her teeth grinded together and when the current stopped there were a few seconds before she actually managed to catch her breath. Her vision was blurry so she blinked the tears away as something hot and wet slid across her lips. She reached out with her tongue, tasting the sharp tang of iron, and figured her nose must be bleeding. Again.

Andrew reached out with a handkerchief and wiped the blood away.

"I can't believe that," Chloe said after a few false starts, unable to make her tongue work at first. "I _can't_ believe the whole time our relationship was just one long con."

"Maybe you just don't want to believe it," Andrew said offhandedly_. _"I think we're done here for today." Ray jotted a few more notes down then began to undo Chloe's restraints.

"How much longer are we going to do this before you believe that it's gone?" Chloe asked as Andrew helped her sit up. "There's no more power. I couldn't heal anything or anyone if I wanted to." She slid off the edge of the gurney, her bare feet unstable on the cold tile floor. She tried to stand on her own but her knees gave out the second she put even the slightest weight on them.

"How much longer are we going to do this before you realize your boyfriend played you?" Andrew asked as he held her upright and they made their way down the corridor. The first time they'd done the electric shock, the pain was so intense she'd almost gone insane from it. She had to force herself to focus on something else, anything else, to keep her mind off of it. But she couldn't think about Oliver or Bart or Victor or Clark out of fear she'd blurt something out. So she thought about Neal. And she'd _been_ thinking about Neal almost every second of every day since.

She wasn't any closer to coming to a conclusion about him either. Just when she had herself convinced that he would never turn on her like that, she'd remember something he said or did or a look and a tiny bit of doubt would creep up, worm it's way into her brain and she'd be right back where she stared.

"You've gotta give me something here Chloe," Andrew told her as he sat her down on the edge of her bed. "Tess is starting to get impatient."

"Wait," Chloe shook her head, trying to clear the fog a little bit. "Who's Tess?"

"The new boss," Andrew said. "She took over after Lex went missing. And you don't have the history with her that you had with Lex. Which means she has no reason to keep you around if you don't start showing some results."

"Careful Andrew, you're gonna make me think you actually care." Chloe closed her eyes and leaned back against the pillows. She knew the drill, the headache would come in a minute, it always did after the electric shock.

He snorted and walked to the door. "I'm just good at pretending," he smirked and turned around. "Kinda like your boyfriend."

Chloe wished she had the energy to flip him off but she just didn't.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The woman's voice outside her door startled Chloe out of her sleep. "You've had her here for two months now and you have nothing to show for it?"

Chloe pulled herself to her feet and crept closer to the door to better hear what was being said. "We've tried everything. Nothing strange showed up in her blood tests. Her MRI's, CAT scan's, _everything_ was clear. I think she's telling the truth. I think, if she ever actually had this power, it's gone now." Andrew countered.

"You told me she could heal him," the woman said. "_You told me_, if I found him, she could heal him."

"Because that's what I was told. By Lex." Andrew said shortly. "So don't even try and pin this on me Tess. I'm just doing my job here."

Chloe sighed, so this was the infamous Tess, Lex's replacement. "Has she given us anything? Anything on the Green Arrow or his leather clad friends?" Tess asked.

"Nothing," Andrew sighed.

"If she hasn't given them up by now, we're not going to get anything out of her. And her cousin is causing me more trouble than she's worth." Tess paused. "Miss Sullivan is no longer useful to me. Terminate the project."

"Yes ma'am." Andrew said and Chloe felt something twist in her chest at the casual way he agreed to the command. She knew their back and forth banter wasn't exactly the beginning of a beautiful friendship. She knew he was just doing his job and she was a part of that job. And a part of her knew, deep down that this day might come, that there was a chance he'd be given the order to kill her. She just hoped there might be a second's hesitation on his part.

Chloe padded quickly back to the bed and grabbed the mattress, shoving it to the floor. Her fingers tore at the box spring desperately until she managed to pierce the fabric, ripping a gash just big enough to get her hand in. She grabbed onto the first piece of wood her fingers touched and pulled, trying to free it but not having much luck.

Her heart sped up when she heard Tess' heels clicking down the hall. She looked down at her bare feet and cringed, already dreading the pain that was sure to follow but knowing there was no other option. She kicked out as hard as she could, her heel connecting with the wood frame of the box spring. The pain radiated all the way up her leg but she just gritted her teeth and kicked again. She felt the wood splinter at the same time something in her ankle popped and she bit her lip to keep from crying out.

Outside, Andrew punched the code into the door lock and tears welled up in her eyes as Chloe set her foot down on the ground. Reaching back into the hole, she grabbed the piece of wood and pulled as hard as she could, freeing it from the box spring frame.

She limped painfully over to the door and slid behind it just as it opened and Andrew stepped into the room. All she could see was his shadow cast from the light in the hallway. His gun was out and drawn and Chloe clapped a hand over her mouth to quiet the sound of her breathing.

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and the light from the hallway illuminated the bed, reveling the displaced mattress and torn up box spring. "Son of a—" He started to turn around, scanning the darkness for any hint of Chloe just as the jagged edge of the piece of wood connected with his head.

He caught a glimpse of Chloe as he crumpled to the ground and she could have sworn he was glaring at her. She tossed the bloody piece of wood to the side and reached down, pulling Andrew's gun from his slack fingers before stepping over him and heading for the door.

She limped away as fast as she could on her ankle, going down corridor after corridor, hoping at some point she'd come to an exit. She stopped when she saw a half open door and she chanced a peek inside. When she saw the bank of computers against the back wall she smiled. If she could get to one of those she could figure out where she was and how to get out of there and finally get back home.

She hesitated when she saw someone sitting in front of one of the monitors, until she realized it was Ray and lifted Andrew's gun without a second thought. He had earphones in so it was easy to sneak up on him and remembering the look on his face as he flipped the switch on the electric shock machine made it really easy to press the barrel of the gun at the bottom of his skull.

"Don't fucking move," Chloe spit out spinning his chair around to face her. His eyes widened and Chloe smiled for the first time in months. She found a box of wires and used them to tie him to the chair before shoving him to the side and sitting down in front of the computer.

The second her fingers hit the keys, her entire body sighed in relief. She took a breath and gathered her thoughts. She needed to figure out where she was and how to get out of there. She wondered if she should try to get a message to Oliver. And figured it would probably be a good idea to see if she could get into their records and get rid of any mention of her stay there and check to see exactly how much they knew and what they were trying to do here. She heard footsteps coming up behind her and her hand shot out for Andrew's gun but she was already too late.

"Don't even think about it," Andrew said as he cocked what must have been his backup weapon. Chloe closed her eyes waiting for the bullet but it never came.

"What did you do?" He asked instead, shoving her chair violently to the side as he started typing. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," Chloe said confused before chancing a look at the monitors. On one of the monitors was a blueprint of the compound along with map showing her current GPS location. On another, file after file was opening, being scanned and any mention of Chloe found was immediately deleted. "I didn't…" Chloe whispered in shock as she registered the blaring alarm that was going off.

"_Attention: Unauthorized access to internal archives has been detected. 75% of core systems have been compromised. Security protocol 137 recommends emergency manual shutdown. Warning. Emergency manual shutdown has been disabled._" A slightly feminine computerized voice relayed calmly. "_Attention: Unauthorized access to internal archives has been detected. 75% of core systems have been compromised. Security protocol 137 recommends emergency manual shutdown. Warning. Emergency manual shutdown has been disabled._"

"Fix this," Andrew screamed, untying the guy from the chair and pushing him in front of the computers.

"I didn't do this," Chloe shook her head trying to figure out what was happening. She really hadn't actually done anything. She'd thought about it but before she'd even gotten the chance Andrew stopped her.

"Shit," the guy in the lab coat said as he typed furiously. "She sent out some kind of signal."

"How?" Andrew looked between Ray and Chloe. "I thought you said the whole system was self contained. I can't even check my e-mail and you're telling me she sent out a signal?"

"It _was_ self contained," the guy said his confusion turning toward hysteria.

"What kind of signal?" Andrew asked nervously.

"I don't know, it's encrypted." Ray glared at her over his shoulder.

"Stop it, stop the signal." Andrew said.

"I _can't_."

"Well then break the encryption," Andrew growled.

"I'm trying." Ray sighed. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"She couldn't have been in here for more than five minutes." Andrew ran his fingers through his hair, pulling at the ends in frustration before turning on Chloe. "What did you do?" Andrew growled at her and Chloe shook her head.

"I don't…" she looked down at her hands and then back up that monitor and suddenly she could see it. She could see everything. She could see every keystroke Ray was making and could predict every key stroke he would make. She could see lines of code scrolling rapidly down the screen and as she looked more closely she could see the program _she'd_ made. She had no idea how she'd made it or when but she just knew by looking at it that she had.

Then she looked at Andrew and it only took her a second to realize what he saw. He saw her confusion, her uncertainty and his lips quirked up into a smile. "You don't know do you?" He laughed and pulled out his phone. "Miss Mercer, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is, I'm pretty sure the Bakersfield Compound has been compromised." Andrew pulled the phone away from his ear as Tess screamed at him. Even Chloe winced at the tone in her voice. "Well, the good news is, I think I've just found a use for Chloe Sullivan. She can help you find Lex Luthor."

Chloe looked between Andrew's smug expression and Ray's heated glare and shook her head 'no' but it was too late. She should have just run, she should have gotten as far away from this place as she possibly could. And now it was too late.

"I can have her in Black Creek by tomorrow morning." Andrew said before hanging up the phone. Chloe opened her mouth to protest, to beg, but she never got the chance as he lifted the gun in his hand and brought it down hard on the side of her head, knocking her unconscious immediately.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe walked out of the bathroom at the Isis foundation, loving the feeling of being back in her own clothes again. She ran her fingers through her still wet hair and stood there, taking a second to just breath. "Coffee?" Oliver asked from behind her and she smiled, taking the mug from his out stretched hands gratefully.

"Thanks," Chloe took a sip eagerly. "Where did everyone go?"

"Dinah's got work in the morning so I let her take the Jet back to Seattle. AC hitched a ride with her and Bart was hungry so Vic took him out for a 2 am burrito. They thought you might need some time alone." Oliver said. "Do you? Need some time alone? Cause I can take you back to the Talon-"

"No," Chloe shook her head. "I'm not really ready to go back there just yet. And I've been alone for the past three months, I could do with the company." She walked over to the couch and sat down, cradling the cup of coffee to her chest. "You think Clark's gonna be ok?"

"If anyone can help Clark its John," Oliver sat down next to her. "He's gonna be ok." Chloe nodded and absently sipped her coffee. "Are you gonna be ok?" When she didn't answer he looked over and saw tears welling up in her eyes. "Chlo?"

"I'm so sorry," Chloe whispered, the tears falling down her cheeks.

"Chloe—"

"No, I have to—I _didn't_ know," Chloe said. "I would never do anything that would put any of you in danger."

"I know that Chloe," Oliver told her.

"I tried to fight them I really did. You have to understand Oliver, I had no idea what was happened to me and I was scared and I just needed to buy some time. I needed to figure things out," Chloe said, the words coming out of her mouth faster and faster. "So I told them I would help them find Lex. I never had any intention of actually doing it. I went along with them because I thought it might help me understand. I thought it was just another test but then I recognized your number and I stopped. I didn't tell them anymore." Chloe took a breath. "But they used the serum on me, the same stuff they used on you and I couldn't help it."

"Hey," Oliver put an arm over her shoulder and pulled her against his shoulder. "I know Chloe, I know ok." He dropped a kiss to her forehead. "I don't blame you, no one blames you. This whole situation is so messed up. We never should have put you in this position in the first place."

"What are you talking about?" Chloe looked up at him confused. "You didn't do anything Oliver."

"It's my secret Chloe, not yours," Oliver said. "And you shouldn't have to carry it."

"I don't mind," Chloe said and Oliver tried to protest but she wouldn't let him. "No, Oliver, I made my choice, a long time ago and I have never _ever_ regretted it. I saw what it did to Clark, carrying his secret alone for all those years. I know what it did to me," she whispered thinking about the constant state of fear she lived in every single day after finding out about her meteor power. "Carrying your secret is a small price to pay considering what you do for me—for everyone. You're a hero Oliver, you're _my_ hero. Thanks. For finding me. For saving me."

"Anytime Sidekick," Oliver assured her. "Besides, Bart was going insane without you which was driving everyone else insane so really finding you was the only option."

Chloe barked out a laugh as she shoved him away and set her coffee on the table. "Oh God, this place is a mess." Chloe wiped her eyes, changing the subject as she finally got a look at her office. There were files spilling out of her file cabinet, which judging from the state of the locks had been not so subtly broken into. Her desk was covered in papers and pictures and empty take out containers.

"Hey we did all this for you," Oliver pointed out.

"And I'm very grateful," Chloe assured him. "But did you have to trash the place?" She picked up an empty burrito wrapper and dropped it into the already overflowing trash can. Oliver followed her lead, picking the stuff up off the floor and Chloe grabbed a stack of photos.

"Oliver," She said softly, staring down at the picture on the top of the stack for a full minute before she managed to convince herself of what she was actually seeing.

It was a picture of Neal. She had no idea when it was taken. His three piece suit was impeccable; sunglasses perched perfectly on his nose, not a hair out of place. He was standing by the fountain in Dorset Park and it looked like he was waiting for someone.

"Where did you get this?" Chloe asked confused as she flipped to the next picture. Another one of Neal, then another, and another.

"AC took them," Oliver looked over her shoulder.

"Why?" Chloe glanced at Oliver before going back to the pictures, flipping through them until she saw the answer for herself. She stared at the picture of Neal standing face to face with Lex, willing herself to look away but she couldn't.

"Jimmy swore the guys who took you were from the DDS but we couldn't find any record of you anywhere. Victor was sure Lex had to be behind it so he had AC follow him, hoping he would lead us to you. Do you know that guy? We couldn't find anything on him."

"I thought I did," Chloe whispered as she flipped to the next picture. In this one Neal was handing Lex a small silver disc that looked a lot like the Kryptonian key she'd given him almost five years ago for safe keeping. "Excuse me," Chloe said dropping the pictures to the ground before she ran to the bathroom, throwing up the pizza Oliver forced her to eat a few hours earlier.

The door opened behind her and the faucet turned on. Oliver laid a wet washcloth on her neck before brushing the hair off of her forehead. "What's going on? Who is that guy?"

She sat up and Oliver handed her the washcloth so she could wipe her mouth. Before she could stop herself the whole story came spilling out. How they met, how they got to know each other. She faltered a bit when she got to their last night together but eventually she got it out. Then she told him about the next morning, waking up to find Kate in her hotel room and Neal long gone.

"Chloe—"

"Can you just…take me home?" Chloe looked up at him sadly. "I think I want to go home now."

"Sure," Oliver smiled and helped her up.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe stared at her computer screen, her eyes were dry and her head was pounding and she was so incredibly tired but somehow her new super brain was still seeing and processing everything that flashed across the screen. When she got home she'd logged onto the Daily Planet intending to check the archives and see what she'd missed in the world the past three months. After just five minutes she was totally caught up on current events.

She's not sure what made her decide to hack into Lex's mansion's security feed but she was already in before she could think about it, this new power was good for something at least. She went back about a month before her arrest, and started watching, hoping she could find anything that might explain what Neal had been doing with Lex, or why he'd given Lex the key.

At around 2:45 she was on the verge of falling asleep when someone familiar walked into Lex's office. Chloe sat up straight and turned the volume up on her computer.

_Lex stood up from behind his desk and walked around to greet the brunette. "Kate Moreau, I presume?" _

"_Mr. Luther, I'm glad you finally agreed to meet with me." Kate shook his hand and he motioned for her to sit down. _

"_Well you've been quite persistent," Lex sat back down behind the desk and closed his computer, giving her his full attention. _

"_I'll cut right to the chase." Kate said. "You have something I want and I have something you want. I propose a trade." _

"_I'm sorry," Lex leaned forward and smiled. "What could you possibly have that I want?" _

"_Chloe Sullivan," Kate said simply but Lex's poker face didn't give much away, just the hint of a smirk on his lips. _

"_And what makes you think, if I wanted Chloe Sullivan, that I couldn't just go out and get her myself?" Lex asked. _

"_Because it would raise way too many questions," Kate said. "Especially with the history the two of you have. And I just assumed that someone with the ability to heal people is something that would interest you. Was I wrong?" _

_Lex's mask slipped, just for a split second but Kate caught it and smiled. He'd always believed that Chloe had some sort of meteor power, but to have it confirmed, and not just confirmed but for Kate to explicitly state what that power was suddenly shifted the power in their negotiations. And Kate knew that. _

"_And what do I have that you want?" Lex asked._

"_A music box," Kate said. "Well information on a music box." _

"_I don't know what you're talking about," Lex said brushing her off and Kate pulled something out of her jacket pocket, setting it carefully on the edge of Lex's desk. It was the small cherub that Chloe had given to Neal. "Where did you get that?" _

"_From someone who got it from you," Kate said. "Well I say got. I mean stole." _

"_That's was in my vault," Lex said. _

"_Was being the operative word. And so was this," Kate pulled a small picture of the Kryptonian key out of the same pocket and slid it across the desk toward Lex. He picked it up, glancing down at it cautiously, his fingers tightening just slightly on the paper in his hands. _

"_The last time I checked," Lex slid the picture back. "It still is." _

"_Yeah, that one's a fake," Kate shrugged. "Has been for a little over three years now." _

"_And you know this how?" Lex asked. _

"_Because I got that picture from the guy who stole it from you," Kate said. "Does the name Neal Caffery mean anything to you?" _

"_I've heard of him," Lex said. "He's a forger," the word sounded heavy on his tongue as he looked back down at the picture. _

"_A world class forger," Kate said. "He's also a con-man and a grifter. Do me a favor, call…whoever it is you call in situations like this and have them e-mail you a copy of Special Agent Peter Burke's FBI file." _

_Lex stared at Kate for a second before picking up the phone and requesting the file. His email dinged less than a minute later and he clicked on the link, his jaw clenching as the picture loaded and it was not the face he expected to see. _

"_It was Caffery the whole time," Lex laughed humorlessly. "He made up the thing about the ring to get the disk." Kate just nodded, confirming his suspicions. _

"_But he's willing to give it back," Kate said. "Along with delivering Chloe Sullivan on a silver platter. In exchange, all we want is to know where the music box is." _

"_How are you going to get me Chloe without raising any questions?" Lex asked. _

"_If she were to be arrested by the DDS, you'd have access to her correct?" Kate asked._

"_Once she's in DDS custody I can have her…transferred," Lex said. "But, contrary to popular belief, I can't just make them arrest her. They actually do need some form of evidence of wrong doing and Chloe is very good at covering her tracks." _

"_If I can get you the internal logs from her computer, the one she uses to hack secure government sites, would we have a deal?"she asked. _

_Lex smiled, a real smile this time and nodded. "We just might. Once I have the logs, It'll take a day, maybe two to get everything in place and Chloe's got eyes and ears everywhere. If she gets wind of this, she goes to ground and disappears." _

"_And that's where Neal comes in," Kate said. "He'll distract her while you get things together on your end." _

"_How does he plan on doing that?" Lex asked. _

"_You've seen him, how do you think?" Kate smirked. "Once Chloe's taken care of, we exchange the disk for the location of the music box." _

"_Deal," Lex said holding out his hand. Kate shook it with a smile and stood up. She grabbed the cherub and slid it back in her pocket, leaving the picture with Lex as she turned to leave. _

"_I'll be in touch," Kate called over her shoulder._

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe replayed the video five times and was cueing it up for a sixth when she heard something downstairs in the Talon. Her blood went cold and she suddenly regretted turning down Oliver's offer to sleep on her couch. She grabbed the poker from the fireplace kit and walked to the door. She tiptoed down the stairs, the poker held tightly above her head ready to strike.

There was more movement as a figure stepped into the light and Chloe dropped the poker to her side, suddenly exhausted. "Jimmy?"

He spun around surprised and just stared at her for a second before taking the steps two at a time until he was standing in front of her. He reached out and pulled her into a crushing hug. "Lois said you were back but I didn't believe her."

Chloe vaguely remembered asking Oliver to call Lois and let her cousin know she was home and safe and would see her in the morning. She never imagined Lois would call Jimmy.

"You're ok?" Jimmy asked when he pulled away. "I mean you look ok."

"I'm fine," Chloe took a step back.

"I looked for you…everywhere," Jimmy told her. "What—"

Chloe held up a hand, "I'm not really ready to talk about it just yet."

"Fair enough," Jimmy slipped his hands in his pockets. "Coffee?"

Chloe thought about it. The chances of her actually going to sleep were slim to none already. "Sure."

An hour later they were on their third cup of coffee as Jimmy filled Chloe in on what she'd missed the past few months. Hearing about Lois and Jimmy's adventures in reporting had been nice, it meant she didn't have to think about other things.

It also reminded her how easy it had been with Jimmy and suddenly without warning she realized she missed him. She missed having him in her life.

"Look, about what happened before you left." Jimmy said when he caught her staring at him.

"I was wondering when you were going to bring up the diamond sized elephant in the room," Chloe smiled.

"I jumped the gun in proposing to you, and I've had a lot of time to think about it. And, obviously, we're not in the same place. Let's just pretend it didn't happen." Jimmy shook his head.

"So, you're rescinding the offer?" Chloe asked him, her tone strange.

"No, I just—" he sighed. "I don't want an answer. I don't want things to change between us."

"Yes." Chloe blurted out suddenly.

"Great. Things will go back to the way they were." Jimmy relaxed back in his seat.

Chloe laughed, reaching out to grab his hand. "No, Jimmy. _Yes_." She saw his eyes widen and suddenly he got it. "All that time alone in a cell, I realized that what I wanted in the past kept me from seeing what I have right now. And that's you. You're perfect." And in a way he was. Jimmy Olsen was just Jimmy Olsen. There was no hidden agenda with him, no con, no game. What you see is what you get. And right now that's exactly what Chloe needed.

"I am so far from perfect." Jimmy admitted freely and openly and Chloe smiled at his candor.

"Which is perfect for me." Chloe said. She'd had perfect, or what she thought was perfect anyway and all it had done was break her heart. She thought of Neal and felt her chest tighten and then looked over at Jimmy's wide, open, smiling face and the tightness eased, just a bit.


End file.
